“Life of Pi” Is Compelling and Wildly Entertaining

The much anticipated “Life of Pi” opened Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at the Ahmanson Theatre to a sold-out house. Based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Yann Martel, this retelling is brought to theatrical life with wild imagination, magical thinking and puppets.

This is an adventure of body and spirit which questions what is the truth and what is the truth we chose to believe.

Taha Mandviwala and the national tour cast of “Life of Pi” – Ahmanson Theatre – Photo by Evan Zimmerman.

Playwright, Lolita Chakrabarti has taken Martel’s book and condensed it to its essence although the show is still long at just over two hours. Pi is living with his family in India where they own a zoo. When politics force the family to leave, they pack up the animals and aboard a ship. Sadly, the ship is lost at sea along with Pi’s family and thus Pi finds himself on a raft in the middle of the ocean with a Tiger with the curious name of Richard Parker. From here we experience the terror, the hunger, the longing for rescue along with the beauty of a star filled night, a soft rain and the improbable alliance of Pi and the tiger.

Pi, portrayed by the remarkable Taha Mandviwala with exuberance, physicality and command of his character draws us in from the start and we stay with him for the full ride. Cleverly cast, the ensemble plays multiple parts ranging from speaking roles to animal puppeteers or perhaps simply roaming the stage with an umbrella full of stars or a glowing school of fish.

The national tour cast of “Life of Pi” – Ahmanson Theatre – Photo by Evan Zimmerman.

Director Max Webster has found a way to bring this parable to life with the collaboration of top-notch artists including Puppet Designers Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes. The puppets manipulated by the cast are accurately sized yet abstract in appearance and coloration. The versatile Set Design by Tim Hatley moves seamlessly from hospital bed to a ships deck, onto a raft and into the roiling waters where Pi and the Tiger must survive for 227 days.

Ahmanson Theatre – (L-R) Anna Leigh Gortner, Shiloh Goodin, Toussaint Jeanlouis, Taha Mandviwala in the national tour of “Life of Pi” – Photo by Evan Zimmerman.

All in all, this is a remarkable show full of inventive and often powerful stagecraft and yet, not all the roads connect. The fast pace does not allow the animals, with the exception of the Tiger/Richard Parker, to be much more than wildly animated so that it is hard to connect with them on a visceral level. Richard Parker/Tiger is able to overcome this as he is the costar to Pi. However, on this night he was voiced by Oge Agulué, also the Cook, and his verbiage was hard to understand, a true drawback to the story, as were the all too visible puppeteers. Dressed in shades of beige, they did not generally disappear so that the focus on the puppet often became the focus on the manipulator.

Ahmanson Theatre – (L-R) Anna Leigh Gortner, Toussaint Jeanlouis, Taha Mandviwala in the national tour of “Life of Pi” – Photo by Evan Zimmerman.

A little too long and overly busy, a lull in the works would go a long way toward allowing the audience to take a breath and contemplate the emotion and philosophical questions posed by the storyteller. Ultimately, however, the show rests on the character of Pi, and actor Taha Mandviwala, is up to the task in every possible way. In a testament to the power of the story, in the end we can only hope that Richard Parker/Tiger and Pi find their way home.

Ahmanson Theatre – (L-R) Taha Mandviwala, Anna Leigh Gortner, Shiloh Goodin, Toussaint Jeanlouis in the national tour of “Life of Pi” – Photo by Evan Zimmerman.

Scenic Design by Tony Award winner, Tim Hatley, ingeniously manipulates the stage from a tranquil zoo into a terrifying ocean typhoon complete with pouring rain. The design of the raft and its limitations becomes an important character in of itself. Adding dimension to the stage is the Video and Animation Design by Andrzej Goulding. The innovative Lighting Design of Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling adds atmospheric dynamics as does the pitch perfect Musical Score by Andrew T. Mackay. Costumes are also by Tim Hatley.

This is not a perfect show but it is compelling and wildly entertaining. Running through June 1^st, go see it, it’s worth your time.

Ahmanson Theatre – (L-R) Austin Wong Harper, Taha Mandviwala in the national tour of “Life of Pi” – Photo by Evan Zimmerman.

The hard working cast not mentioned above includes; Sorab Wadia, Sinclair Mitchell, Jessica Angleskhan, Mi Kang, Rishi Jaiswal, Alan Ariano, Sharayu Mahale, Ben Durocher, Shiloh Goodin, Anna Leigh Gortner, Austin Wong Harper, Aaron Haskell, Toussaint Jeanlouis, Betsy Rosen, Anna Vomacka, Andrew Wilson, Pragun Bhardwaj and Savidu Geevaratne.

To learn more about the Ahmanson Theatre and to purchase tickets, please visit their website.