It's War Horse….the epic theatre production that served as the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's movie by the same name. It started as a children's novel…and life-sized puppets are among the most stunning stars of the show.
War Horse is set in World War l and tells the story of Joey, a horse enlisted to fight for the English Army…and Albert, the boy who loves him but is too young to join the horse on the front lines.
"The story is really about the camaraderie that a boy has with this horse, Joey and sort of the heroism of both of these individuals as they go through this terrible war," added Matt Wolf, VP of Programming at The Kimmel Center.
The horse is an astonishing feat of puppetry and engineering. Standing 8 feet high and 10 feet long and strong enough to hold a human rider, he's brought to galloping, trotting and charging life with the help of three puppeteers.
"That's one of the things that's so spellbinding about the show is that you know after a certain point, it becomes real. And you see this real horse that just stands and breathes. It's just quite spectacular for those people who have seen Lion King and just the theatre and their surroundings spring to life, it's the same type of experience when you see War Horse. It's really a larger than life theatrical spectacular," said Wolf.
War Horse runs November 20th through December 2nd at the Academy of Music. For tickets and show times, visit The Kimmel Center.
