Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, where there was no streaming TV, or on-demand, or DVDs or even VHS tapes, a generation of children grew up watching Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard in an annually rerun taped-for-TV event preserving their Tony-Award winning performances in Peter Pan. Their children experienced it again when it was re-released on DVD thirty years later, with much less fanfare. The 60s live TV production values and special effects looked so bland compared to the CGI their children grew up taking for granted. They were also even less forgiving of a middle-aged woman pretending to be a boy, a boy character they knew well from multiple movies and the Disney animated classic.
The classic musical has been revisited many times over the decades: Broadway revivals with stars like Sandy Duncan, multiple national tours starring former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby, and a second NBC live TV version in 2015 starring Allison Williams and Christopher Walken. And now a new revised production begins a highly anticipated national tour at the Hippodrome this week which addresses many issues the piece has accumulated over the years. And just like that a musical that everyone has grown up with feels fresh and new.
The big picture adjustment was bringing on Indigenous playwright Larissa FastHorse to rewrite the dated script, mostly to provide a more sensitive and supportive portrayal of Tiger Lily and the Native Americans Peter and Wendy meet in Neverland. The original score gave them a musical number entitled “Ugg-a-wug”, which problematically set nonsense words to a Native chant beat. The Williams/Walken TV version addressed this by hiring a rewrite that substituted actual tribal language as the lyrics (but still dressed them in Bob Mackie “Halfbreed” knock-off costumes, so, babysteps). FastHorse gives the Island tribe a backstory and a much more respectful treatment, enlarging their presence near the level of the Lost Boys. The end result seems a little over-aggressive and heavy-handed at times, but the issue needed addressed and this is a step in the right direction.
She also provides more contemporary touches to update the story for today’s more critical children, who have been raised with a different cultural and visual aesthetic. No longer set in author Sir J.M. Barrie’s Victorian London, it begins in the nursery of a present day Darling family, where the children already have social pressures and lifegoals. Wendy (Hawa Kamara) wants to be a doctor (which conveniently prepares her for her role as caregiver to the Lost Boys) intent on producing a challenge dance video to go viral and earn her money for future med school. John (William Foon at this performance) is a scholastic overachiever fascinated with an ancient culture he’s studying for an unassigned school project. And Michael (Reed Eplay at this performance) is a dreamer with an overactive imagination. Their father (Cody Garcia) is not the familiar old-fashioned disciplinarian, but a younger father overwhelmed and frazzled by the many demands of raising a family while trying to take care of the expectations of his workplace, while their mother (Shefali Deshpande) juggles all of their problems to just try and maintain family balance. Oh, and Tinker Bell refers to Peter and Wendy as “silly ass”. To keep it PG-13 for the jaded kids?
The entire rewrite seems to make everything more kid-accessible, including transforming the entire pirate brigade to a band of inept comic buffoons instead of the gnarly, threatening child-napping brood of before. But if this is now an attempt for more family-friendly kids theatre, let all kid’s theatre take this path with the expense and the technical expertise invested in it. The only possible drawback of all the modern day tech references in the opening is that FastHorse took what for a century has been pretty much a timeless story and just dated it as these details will, as technology goes, most likely be antiquated in ten years.
The familiar classic score has also been doctored, with some clever reprises of the major numbers (original music by Morris (Moose) Charlap, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, and additional music by Jule Styne, additional lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green; Greens’ daughter Amanda provided a few adjustments for the most recent TV version, some included here, and there is a fantastic new song at the finale of act 1, “Friends Forever”, that has no credits listed on the program or the press information, so I have no idea to credit whom with what, but the improvements are all for the best and engage especially the younger audience better).
[Edit: “Friends Forever” is the melody Amanda Greene borrowed from an old trunk song of her fathers, formerly “Comes Once in a Lifetime” from Subways Are For Sleeping, to which she set the new lyrics. Mystery solved. Thanks to reader Kevin James Logan for the lead]
The lesser yet incredibly obvious and critical adjustment to every 5-year-old who ever watched the Martin version was the fact that for some reason it took 70 years to ever occur to producers that, even though it was written as a star vehicle for a particular woman, there’s always something missing or awkward about that casting. A woman trying to mimic a boy with her perception of “spunk” and whatever else she thinks young boys do has always rung hollow. It always results in actresses trying uncomfortably too hard (and still failing) to be what they are not. The simple decision to finally cast Peter Pan as a boy has elevated this piece to the second star and on til morning. And not just any boy, but young Nolan Almeida breathes so much life and vigor into this chestnut of a show that one barely recognizes it. Almeida brings all the adolescent boy angst, anxiety, and, particularly, energy that no woman can muster, to carry the entire show on his slight but strong shoulders. His vocals melt the heart, his dancing seems to lift him off the floor (even without the flight system), and his acting is flawlessly genuine. And when he flies, he soars (both figuratively and literally, thanks to flight coordinators Rick Sordelet & Christian Kelly-Sordelet). The high energy and daring acrobatics he brings to his flight scenes and final battle with Hook are something that only an agile, dynamic, athletic boy can achieve. (Not even a particularly accomplished female Olympian can match his energy). His entrances bursting into the nursery mid-flight are especially astonishing. Contrasting this with his charming and sweet interactions with Wendy and Tiger Lily (Raye Zaragoza), which always seemed extra awkward with a grown woman in the role, his performance depth is astounding for one his age. This production is landmark for the piece in many ways as described above, but the biggest and most necessary improvement is finding this winsome, gifted young actor to display his many talents and charms in this role. I will go so far as to say that Almeido is the one reason to see this new evolved production. He is top-billed as “Introducing Nolan Almeida”. I see this introduction leading to a great things and a very long relationship with the American Musical Stage. That is, if the CW doesn’t snatch him up for their 2025 pilot season.
Cody Garcia in the traditional dual role of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook is also a comic delight. With their tall gangly physique and adept comic timing, their Hook is younger, slightly more unhinged, and oddly sexier as the leader of a comically more inept and less menacing tribe of pirates than usual. Garcia commands center stage on many events (even usurping the Peter Pan themed show curtain at the top of the second act for a more villain-friendly version). We thought Christopher Walken had a hold on the comic highlights of Hook with his drunken tap dance. But Garcia steals the thunder all back, intentionally this time, as well as three opportunities to show off their own fancy showmanship with three self-titled dances, (“Hook’s Tango”, “Hook’s Tarantella”, and “Hook’s Waltz”). Yet even this accomplished actor who is no stranger to outrageous character roles (having last performed in town as Willy Wonka in the national tour of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory) is no match for the engaging Almeida when their ultimate showdown occurs. Plus, as stated above, FastHorse’s rewrite has taken all the bluster out of Hook and his band to play them for laughs, so it really deflates all the threat that Hook poses to Peter. But in this version, we’re all rooting for the amiable Almeida anyway so it barely matters.
As for the rest of the cast, Kamara is delightful as a strong and smart Wendy, and her scenes with Almeida are particularly sweet. I’ve never been one to praise child actors, yet this is two reviews in a row that I feel compelled to compliment two young talents. Foon and Epley as John and Michael are natural, funny, and can dance like crazy when required, yet still maintain a childlike quality that isn’t betrayed by their formal training. In and out of the nursery, these natural charmers are again above par with the comic skills and emotions to play on the same level as their talented older costars. And Zaragoza as Tiger Lily is a much more developed 3-D character and she embraces the new material with gusto.
Director Lonny Price is up to the challenge of embracing this new spin on a classic and finding all the magic it can possess. He has a phenomenal technical team that also up the ante to unprecedented highs for this show. Lorin Latarro mines the cast for both comedy and high energy as the dances call for it, with her high point being the exciting new number “Friends Forever”. It’s soo good I still wish I knew who deserves credit for it.
Costume designer Sarafina Bush comes up with some new concepts for the Lost Boys and fun, against the palette red ensembles for the theatrical Hook, as well as colorful and fun contemporary nightwear for Wendy, John, and Michael. But her accomplishment is the detailed new look she envisioned for Almeida’s Peter Pan which enables and enhances all his young masculine movement.
Scenic Designer Anna Louzos also outdoes herself with the new technologies at her fingertips since the last incarnations of this show made the rounds. Her nursery to Neverland transitions happen fast and fluidly, and the architectural details are exact. It is however with David Bengali’s assist as Projection Designer (and Flight Directors the Sordelets) that things accelerate into high gear when all three talents combine in the flight transition to Neverland, which are exquisitely breathtaking. Then, after Bengali impresses with incredibly realistic video effects for the entire show, he shakes it up and slips in a little old-fashioned Toon Town playfulness aboard the pirate ship. This is not your grandmother’s Peter Pan when it comes to tech. Paul Klieve also deserves praise for the clever and somewhat surprising ways he illuminates the light effect of ever-present meddling Tinker Bell. Definitely not silly assed.
I proclaim this the sleeper hit of the Hippodrome’s big name packed season, so don’t let this one get away. This is Peter Pan as you’ve never seen it, and you want to see it with the exciting debut of Nolan Almeida in the title role (still the best reason to experience it). The show plays one short week at the Hippodrome. Experience the pixie dust Price, Almeida, Garcia, and company sprinkle over this production before it soars off to it’s next stop on way to Neverland. Don’t be the silly ass who misses it.
All photos courtesy of Matthew Murphy
The show runs 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission.
Peter Pan, runs through February 25, 2024, at the Hippodrome Theatre in the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center at 12 N. Eutaw Street. For tickets call the box office at 410.752.7444. or purchase them online