It’s fitting that “Peter Pan,” about a boy who doesn’t want to grow up, has aged incredibly well over the past 120 years.
J.M. Barrie debuted his play of the same name in 1904, but since then dozens of well-known books, plays and films — not to mention one iconic Toronto bistro — have been inspired by this IP.
One of the most enduring is surely the Tony Award-winning musical. Featuring contributions by folks like Jerome Robbins, Jule Styne, and Comden and Green, it originated on Broadway in 1954 as a star vehicle for Mary Martin and has been remounted there a couple of times. I have fond memories of Theatre Twitter, back in the social media platform’s glory days, eviscerating the 2014 “Peter Pan Live!” broadcast featuring “Girls” star/NBC nepo baby Allison Williams in the lead.
Now the “Peter Pan” musical is back in a non-Equity national tour. And while some of the show’s sparkling fairy dust has tarnished with age, its memorable songs, wondrous special effects and book tweaked by contemporary playwright Larissa FastHorse (“The Thanksgiving Play”) make it an entertaining enough all-ages spectacle.
Peter (Kruz Maldonado), looking for his shadow, finds it in the Darling family home. While their parents are out, he whisks the children — eldest Wendy (Aubrie-Mei Rubel), middle child John (Owen Suarez) and youngest Michael (Zaynn Arora) — off to Neverland, where kids never grow old.
There, Wendy becomes a substitute mother figure to a group of lost boys, who together with Peter are uneasily sharing the island with Tiger Lily (Bailey Frankenberg) and her band of followers. Both groups fear the pirates, headed by Captain Hook (Cody Garcia), who’s seeking to get back at Peter for causing his arm to be eaten by the Croc (Zanie Love Shaia).
FastHorse, an Indigenous writer from the Sicangu Lakota Nation, has successfully smoothed over some of the rougher and more problematic edges of the tale, particularly around the character of Tiger Lily and her group, who in this version each represent members of different Indigenous tribes in North America.
FastHorse has also granted more agency to Wendy, who in this version is not just a wannabe mother but an aspiring physician — her scientific knowledge comes in handy in the show’s plot — and a decent swashbuckler.
In one of the musical’s sharpest moments, the lost boys ask Wendy to tell them a bedtime story and she reveals how all fairy tales basically end in the same way, with a passive female character dependent on a prince for her happiness. Clever.
But neither she nor director Lonny Price have solved the problem of how to make the musical’s second scene — in which we’re quickly introduced to three new sets of characters — work. Sarafina Bush’s costumes don’t do enough to distinguish them all; neither does Lorin Latarro’s merely serviceable choreography.
The music is a lively mix of raucous ensemble numbers (“I Won’t Grow Up,” “I Gotta Crow”), genre pastiches (Captain Hook and his crew get both a tango and a tarantella) and moving ballads (“Distant Melody”). (The blatantly racist number “Ugg-a-Wugg” has wisely been excised.)
It’s worth noting that “When I Went Home,” a song cut from the original musical, has been restored, and it adds some much-needed backstory to the capricious character of Peter.
Scenic designer Anna Louizos’ sets efficiently establish the show’s locales, including the children’s bedroom, the lush island and the deck of the infamous Jolly Roger. All of this is enhanced by David Bengali’s projection designs, which bring the worlds to life with colourful vibrancy.
The actors are mostly impressive. Rising star Maldonado has a Broadway belter’s voice and a boy band frontman’s charisma. It’s too bad Price has directed him to sound like a surfer dude when he’s talking; it detracts from his performance.
Rubel handles the heightened demands of the role of Wendy with aplomb, although some of her line readings feel too broad. And if the casting of a man in the title role means the lesbian subtext is missing between Peter and Wendy, the dysfunctional relationship between Hook (performed by Garcia with panto-like gusto) and his boatswain Smee (a cartoonish Kurt Perry) should please audiences looking for queer-coded content.
Of course, any successful version of the show needs to make us believe in magic and it’s here that this production soars.
Peter and the Darling kids’ flights, choreographed by Paul Rubin, remain jaw-dropping, even when the wires are visible. I’m especially impressed when Peter flies, tumbles in the air and engages in swordplay. One misplaced prop or stray limb could spell disaster.
Similarly, the appearances of the fairy Tinkerbell, represented by a darting light and musical cues, evoked gasps of wonder from the kids around me.
Sure, we might all be inundated with AI images these days, but this “Peter Pan” demonstrates that good old-fashioned stage tricks still have the power to enchant us.
