Since its publication in 2001, Jean Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi has become an international bestseller and the basis for Ang Lee’s 2012 Oscar-winning film.

It was most recently adapted for the five-time Olivier Award-winning theater production in London and is now making its Broadway debut at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York.

Creatively adapted by playwright Lolita Chakraborty and directed by Max Webster, the play is set in a Mexican hospital in 1978 as young Pi Patel (Hiran Abeysekara, reprising his Olivier Award-winning role) recounts how he was shipwrecked at sea with a Bengal tiger to keep him company. Pi is the sole survivor of the Tsimtsum Japanese cargo ship wreck that was lost at sea along with his family and most of the animals from his father’s zoo in India.

When tragedy struck, Pi’s family was trying to escape the political turmoil in India in hopes of making a fresh start in Canada. Pi must tell the Japanese insurance investigator and the Canadian diplomat exactly what happened during the 227 days at sea. As Pi tells his story, the stage transforms from a sterile hospital to a colorful zoo in Pondicherry, India, EW reports. Lively puppets by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell are the wild animals in the Patel family zoo.

The remarkable story of hope, faith and perseverance offers “a thrilling evening of theater,” says a Wall Street Journal review. “A dazzling marvel of scenic art” characterizes the play by EW.