“Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure”- revisited (and original) reviewed by Julia W. Rath

Highly Recommended **** If there is any one word to describe “Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure” it is resplendent. J.M. Barrie’s tried-and-true story about a boy from Neverland who doesn’t want to grow up is made manifest by fantastic stagecraft, terrific singing and acting, extraordinary costumes, and superb directing. Even now, on our comparatively small computer screens, we can still experience the magic of live theatre via this delightful archival recording which has been resurrected from 2018. I can only imagine how thrilling the original show must have been in person when it was first staged before a packed audience at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, at Navy Pier. Especially notable is the superior sound quality in this remastered video production, which can also boast of its five-camera design, including closeups of the actors and long shots of the entire proscenium. Together with a new introduction by the brilliant director and choreographer Amber Mak, this 80-minute streaming video is being offered for free on Vimeo through New Year’s Day 2021 as a holiday gift in an era of COVID.

“Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure” is the latest iteration of the musical “Peter Pan” and is distinctive for all sorts of reasons. For one, it is being told from Wendy’s perspective, adding a bit of a feminine touch to a rather masculine tale of the romanticized misadventures of pirates and lost boys. This is Elliot Davis’s version of the classic tale, based on the previous adaptation by Willis Hall of J.M. Barrie’s original 1904 play. Music by George Stiles and lyrics by Anthony Drewe are a departure from the 1954 Broadway production and add a new dimension to the story.

The star of the show Johnny Shea expresses whimsy and free-spiritedness as Peter Pan. The plethora of gorgeous singing voices includes the talented Elizabeth Stenholt as Wendy Darling and her mother Mary Darling (Roberta Burke), who also plays the pirate Cecco. James Konicek excels as the phlegmatic father George Darling as well as the swaggering pirate Captain Hook. Performances by Cameron Goode (John Darling) and Carter Graf (Michael Darling) round out the Darling family, together with Nana the dog, in an authentic rendition by Jonathan Butler-Duplessis, who also plays the pirate Bill Jukes. Sean Patrick Fawcett as Smee also makes a convincing aargh. The beautifully costumed Rengin Altay serves as the storyteller throughout. The excellent casting is a credit to Bob Mason.

Watching the flying scenes must have been exhilarating in person, not to mention seeing all of the spectacular lighting and projection effects! Lighting design by Greg Hofmann and projection design by Mike Tutaj in combination with scenic design by Jeff Kmiec, create a magical world of our imagination. Costuming by Theresa Ham is outstanding, particularly Captain Hook’s outfit and the colorful dog costume, which is inventive and outrageous in a good way. Wig and make-up designer Richard Jarvie makes all of the characters stand out uniquely; this work has to be done with the utmost of efficiency, considering that a number of actors have to be quick change artists, with totally different makeup and hair when they play different roles.

The original sound designer for the production was Ray Nardelli, who made the show work in the live theatre, but it is HMS Media, Chicago Shakes Stream, that has done a fantastic job with this archival video production in enhancing the sound design and mix and building on the work of music director Kory Danielson and orchestrator Matt Deitchman.

Watching the current online production of “Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure” reawakened one of my earliest childhood memories. The first time I saw a play in downtown Chicago was at the age of three or four when my mother took me to see a matinee performance of “Peter Pan” circa 1960. The show was all the rage at the time, and I recall that my mom told me that this was a touring company from New York, and that the star of the original Broadway performance was Mary Martin. The main thing that stuck in my mind from the performance was that I really liked the flying scenes. I recall that I had a good seat and I was intrigued by the wires above me that held Peter Pan up in the air and allowed the character to sail across the stage and above part of the audience. After the show ended, my mother and I talked about it as we walked on State Street. She really liked the performance a lot, but I didn’t find it all that interesting, and I asked my mom a lot of questions. The most important of them was: Why did they have a woman play the title role and not a boy? Moreover, as a little girl, I had no interest in stories of pirates and lost boys and sailing the high seas without a care in the world. Back then, I couldn’t see what was enjoyable about talk concerning death and poison. I couldn’t fully grasp the concept of revenge or hate.

Today, as I see the current production through an adult’s eyes, I can recognize how J.M. Barrie longed to relive his personal past as a young boy and happy memories of a time when work and money and family responsibilities had not yet come on the horizon. Even though the 2020 account is from Wendy’s perspective, the culture of the Victorian era nevertheless carries the day, as dreams for adventure are largely confined to the boys. As for Wendy and Mrs. Darling, the play depicts a situation where women have fixed roles as wives, mothers, nurturers—and worriers.

For the first time in my adult life, I woke up super-refreshed the morning after watching the video and wanted to turn on Captain Kangaroo on TV and enjoy what my life once felt like as a young child of three or four. As I write this, I think about how it felt to be very small with my life ahead of me, while at the same time the adult in me is nostalgic for the touch of my mother’s hand and her cheerful, reassuring presence as she took me to the theatre all those years ago and as we walked to the train to go home afterwards. Rather than reminiscing about what it means to be a child, I was living that experience right then and there—and looking up to the adults around me for guidance. Above all, I couldn’t figure out why Peter Pan wanted to live a life of eternal childhood. Unlike Peter Pan, I was the child who always wanted to grow up.

“Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure” is streaming for free on demand through Friday, January 1, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. (CT) at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s website www.chicagoshakes.com/peterpan.

To learn more about his show and other offerings, please visit the Chicago Shakespeare Theater website www.chicagoshakes.com.

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

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL REVIEW TWO YEARS AGO; now you can see ( with the cameras capturing form all angles) the beauty of the production.

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.

You can catch this FREE  thru January 1- a great holiday gift from Chicago Shakespeare Theatre

Go to www.Chicagoshakes.com