{"id":16186,"date":"2025-10-22T20:37:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/16186\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T20:37:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:37:30","slug":"review-of-broadways-life-of-pi-tour-in-fort-lauderdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/16186\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of Broadway’s ‘Life of Pi’ tour in Fort Lauderdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wait, is this a perfect play?<\/p>\n

\u201cLife of Pi\u201d \u2014 now at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale through Sunday, Oct. 26 \u2014 is a dazzling display of theatrical visuals and coruscant storytelling so powerful, so enthralling, that it\u2019s hard to imagine how it could be any better.<\/p>\n

The play is based on the 2001 bestselling, philosophical novel from Yann Martel that delves deep into spirituality and became an Oscar-winning movie in 2012. This stage version debuted in London\u2019s West End, winning five Olivier Awards before bowing on Broadway in 2023, where it won three Tony Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife of Pi\u201d is not a musical but has that multilayered, multidimensional poetry wound tightly in and around the production. The special effects, the puppetry, the music (nope, not show tunes as much as something akin to a movie soundtrack), the movement\/choreography \u2014 it all works in symphony to make the metaphysical almost tangible.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let the puppets and the homespun humor, of which there is a generous amount, fool you. This show is born and bloodied by conflict. \u201cLife will defend itself no matter how small it is,\u201d one character says.<\/p>\n

The narrative, epic as it is, starts simply. Pi Patel (played by boundlessly energetic Taha Mandviwala<\/a>) and his family run a zoo in India. Pi has been raised as a Hindu, but he is equally interested in Islam and Christianity.<\/p>\n

In this regard, the play is faithful and faith-full. It honors Martel\u2019s novel in that respect and burnishes beliefs until you can almost feel the warm glow. \u201cI just want to love God,\u201d Pi says.<\/p>\n

Mirroring those potentially fractious religious ideas he\u2019s exposed himself to is the political discord and turmoil in India in the mid-1970s, which force the Patels to pack up their animals onto a freight ship and move to Canada. Disaster strikes when a massive storm sinks the freighter, leaving Pi on a lifeboat with an injured zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger.<\/p>\n

\"Taha<\/p>\n

Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade2024<\/p>\n

Taha Mandviwala as Pi Patel with the cast of the national tour of “Life of Pi.” (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade2024\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Now to go into any more detail on the plot would be more than a spoiler. It would be a sin. \u201cLife of Pi\u201d needs to unfold before your eyes and inside your mind in order for the play to preserve its punch \u2026 and its gentle pat.<\/p>\n

But it must be said that the framework for the narrative, and one of the production\u2019s most clever bits, is that \u2014 for two hours including a 20-minute intermission \u2014 Pi is recounting his tragedies and triumphs all in flashbacks from a hospital room as he is interviewed by an insurance adjuster and an embassy attach\u00e9.<\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s on one level.<\/p>\n

But on another level, a level so profound it is breathtaking, this play is about stories we tell in our religions, our faiths \u2014 at first spackled here and there in \u201cLife of Pi,\u201d but then increasingly painted on with the ardor of an artist, each brushstroke passionate and pure and sure<\/p>\n

It is dark, brilliant and (surprisingly) funny at times listening to and watching Pi\u2019s 227 days adrift at sea through two lenses, one animalistic and the other humanistic. Is it fantastical yarn-spinning? Is it a factual account?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe what we see,\u201d the insurance adjuster concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so it goes with God,\u201d Pi responds.<\/p>\n

A perfect answer.<\/p>\n

IF YOU GO<\/p>\n

WHAT: \u201cLife of Pi\u201d<\/p>\n

WHEN: Through Sunday, Oct. 26<\/p>\n

WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale<\/a><\/p>\n

COST: $48.68-$231.58<\/p>\n

INFORMATION: 954-462-0222 (press 1); browardcenter.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Taha<\/p>\n

Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade2024<\/p>\n

Taha Mandviwala as Pi, right, with puppeteer Austin Wong Harper in “Life of Pi,” playing at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center. (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade2024\/Courtesy)
\n\"Taha<\/p>\n

Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade2024<\/p>\n

Taha Mandviwala, left, and puppeteers Anna Leigh Gortner, Shiloh Goodin and Toussaint Jeanlouis. (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade2024\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wait, is this a perfect play? \u201cLife of Pi\u201d \u2014 now at the Broward Center for the Performing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,104,684,28,249,251,250,114,109,3478,106],"class_list":["post-16186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-social","tag-theater","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}