It's hard not to be wowed by the stage magic of "War Horse." But if you like your spectacle in service of story -- rather than the other way around -- you might find this undeniably skilled and handsome piece of theater lacks the very heart it so conspicuously wears on its sleeve.

Let's start with the good: "War Horse" -- a tale of how an English lad and his horse get swept up in the horrors of the first World War -- is a stunningly gorgeous production. The title character is a chestnut stallion named Joey, created by the South African performance ensemble Handspring Puppet Company.

So big in stature and so nuanced in articulation that he has to be animated by three puppeteers, Joey is the undisputed star of the show, and probably its most fully realized character. Unlike the creations in, say, Disney's "Lion King," Joey is not anthropomorphized -- he's all animal, though with a spirit and a strength of will that invite comparison to his two-legged brethren.

But the design team didn't stop its majestic work with Joey. Top to bottom, "War Horse" is simultaneously Spartan and sumptuous: The cast is gigantic -- more than 30 strong. The lights, the sound, the visual projections, the music and the stylized re-creations of war machinery flow seamlessly together. While war is never romanticized, it is given an operatic, almost overwhelming sweep.


But the key word there might be "overwhelming." The show is so very big (and so very loud -- I've been to rock concerts with lower decibel levels) that one begins to suspect co-directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris knew they were compensating for a certain hollowness at the core.

While the 20-word plot summary at the beginning of this review pretty much sums up "War Horse," the show -- which runs well past 2½ hours with intermission -- is filled with little subplots. Most of these are delivered in short-hand fashion and calculated to deliver the same jolts of high emotion that inexplicably make some of us tear up during an especially well-made television commercial.

To say that the nonpuppeteer actors in "War Horse" are tangential would be both an overstatement and an unfair swipe at a very talented ensemble: Alex Morf, who plays Albert, the boy who loves Joey, offers a well-constructed and heartfelt performance that grows nicely over the course of the evening. Todd Cerveris and Angela Reed bookend Morf's performance effectively as Albert's n'er-do-well father and his practical, loving mother.

By curtain call, though, it's clear the human actors are mostly props standing in the long shadow cast by the stage phenomenon of "War Horse." Lovely aesthetics aside, this is a show that manipulates our emotions as masterfully as its puppets.

What: "War Horse"

When: Through Sunday, June 23

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Mpls

Tickets: $125-$39

Information: 800-982-2787 or hennepintheatretrust.org

Capsule: A thing of (shallow) beauty.