“Peter Pan- A Musical Adventure”

Highly Recommended***** How often have I seen the story of “Peter Pan” in my many years of reviewing theater? The number is infinite! I also recall the marvelous “Peter Pan” animated film by Disney far back when animation was done by artists in big workrooms on cels, not by digitization. Chicago Navy Pier’s Shakespeare Theater, for its Summer 2018 production for families has a brand new adaptation of the famous story by J.M. Barrie about the boy who would not grow up, “Peter Pan- A Musical Adventure”. And what a story!

When it comes to theater for young people I love to include the grandkids so you get the perspective of someone in the actual age bracket the material was written for, but with Adam and Sarah off to summer camp, and Rebecca  busy at her day camp, I needed a youngster to assist me with their reaction. In the past, my daughter-in-law’s niece Maya has been a great fill-in and luckily was available and ready to go. She is a delightful just turning teen and her notes will follow. Being 13, she is not as quick as she has been in the past-

This new adaptation, smoothly directed by Amber Mak uses the hugeness of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s high ceilings ( this is three stories high making the flying scenes a bit more challenging, but under Mak’s clever work, wonderful). She also handles all of the choreography with the assistance of Jerry Galante handling the fight choreography. The set ( Jeff Kmiec) on an open stage works well and its simplicity allows the changes to run very smoothly in this 80 minute ( o intermission) production. The actors use the aisles walking past audience members regularly and make some character changes on the fly as several of the actors play multi-roles, including the Darlings ( the parents of Wendy and her brothers who visit Neverland with Peter). Peter is played by Johnny Shea, who I think captures the true feeling of what Barrie created and in this new book written by Elliot Davis with music by George Stiles and lyrics by Anthony Drewe, the story is easy to follow for kids of all ages.

The story is simply that Peter has come back to the Darling home to get his shadow. It seems he loves listening to Wendy (the darling Elizabeth Stenholt) read stories to her brothers John ( Cameron Goode) and Michael (Carter Graf). He wants to take them back to Neverland ( where he calls home) so that Wendy can become “mother” to him and the lost boys ( these are boys who ran away from home and rules set by parents), and convinces them, to fly-away with him. There is a storyteller in this version ( played to perfection by Rengin Altay) who we learn more about as the story progresses. I am sure you can guess!

Mrs. Darling , who also portrays one of Hook’s pirates is played by Roberta Burke and her husband Mr. Darling by James Konicek, who takes on Hook as bold and brassy as I have ever seen. He is Hysterical! The pirates are Smee (Sean Patrick Fawcett) and Christina Hall and the always incredible Jonathan Butler-Duplessis ( who also plays Nana at the Darling house). Incredible! The lost boys are played by Colin Lawrence, Travis Austin Wright, Michael Kurowski and John Marshall, Jr. all very solid dancers as well as singers/actors. They do some sweet harmony.

The songs are different from those we know from the original version of “Peter Pan” but they are clever and truly do add to the telling of the story. In particular “One Big Adventure” and “Just Beyond The Stars” along with “The Cleverness of Me”. Nothing to hum and you certainly won’t be yelling “I Got To Crow” or “I Won’t Grow Up”, but to be honest, I found this version to be a better way of telling the story and I liked a male playing Peter in today’s world. Oh, by the way Tinker Bell is in this version as well ( I have a feeling that with the projections/Mike Tutaj and lighting/Greg Hoffman, they were able to create the neatest of Tinkers one will ever see, flying form hand to hand-very cool!).

The music was directed and conducted by Kory Danielson ( also on the keyboards) along with Julia Schade Armstrong (keyboard), Dominic Trumfio (reeds), Dave Sanger (guitars), Ethan Deppe (percussion) and Sean McNeely- they are backstage but their music fills this entire theater to sheer perfection.

“Peter Pan-A Musical Adventure” will continue at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier through August 19th with performances as follows:

Price: $22-$34

Show Type: Childrens

Box Office: 312-595-5600

http://www.chicagoshakes.com/peterpanfor specifics

Discount parking is available, but if you have the time, I suggest you park far away and take the free trolley which will enhance the experience. In fact, there are all kinds of things to do at Navy Pier, so why not make it a full day!

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Peter Pan- A Musical Adventure”