Matthew Murphy
‘It’s for kids.’
It’s a throwaway line often used to dismiss entertainment geared towards the little ones.
Cute. Sweet. Fun. They’re all pejorative.
But Peter Pan, now stopping at D.C.’s National Theatre for its National Tour, is adorable, charming, magical, intoxicating fun. And it’s for all of us.
There’s a reason that Bluey has stopped passing-by parents in their tracks. That the lessons on Sesame Street have been handed down through generations. And that a character like Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up, has entertained children in the form of Disney and Mary Martin and Cathy Rigby and Robin Williams and the ballet and Peter and the Starcatcher.
It’s because we all want to believe that animals talk and puppets sing and pirates swashbuckle. Belief, a core theme of Peter Pan, is what makes this production work so well. The cast and creatives know that it’s for kids and that’s what is important to them. They want to sprinkle it with fairy dust because that’s what the children deserve: real and honest fantasy.
Director Lonny Price has pulled off perhaps the most amazing magic trick of all: every single moment works. When Peter flies into the Darling’s bedroom, the crowd erupts in applause. When all of the children take flight through the projection’s skylines (brought to life by David Bengali’s projection design, some of the most inventive I’ve seen), audiences duck and weave in their seats along with them like it’s a theme park ride. When the crocodile chases after Captain Hook, squeals of fright can be heard throughout the theatre. And it’s not just the children.
Matthew Murphy
Price takes Peter Pan seriously even if Peter Pan himself doesn’t. He enforces the mechanics of comedy. Before a character can run away, they must rev up like a Looney Tune. Props like poison cakes are comically oversized. The bad guys are moronic. It’s the language of children’s entertainment and Price is fluent. What’s most impressive, perhaps, is that this isn’t the only language he speaks. His resume is filled with Sondheim, the New York Philharmonic, concerts, and documentaries – and he has approached this material with the same respect.
This is particularly true of the musical’s new book. Larissa FastHorse, the playwright behind The Thanksgiving Play (which made her the first known female Native American playwright on Broadway) has been tasked with giving the text the modern version that it so dearly needed. She’s been credited with ‘Additional Book’, but her changes are necessary and essential. Peter Pan has long had a complicated relationship with its Indigenous characters. In FastHorse’s version, the text’s outdated and racist language is replaced with commentary on the way Tiger Lily and other Indigenous people have been treated in their attempt to preserve their culture.
Why do we do this for a children’s show? Because it’s important. And children should know this too. Why not?
But it’s not a complete overhaul. The show still functions the same, visits all the same locations, and delivers all the same moments. The modernization isn’t forced, simple present-day references to cell phones and junk mail fit well with more major changes, like those to the female characters like Tiger Lily (Raye Zaragoza) and Wendy (Hawa Kamara) – who is now significantly more interested in medicine. My only quibble is that the 1950s music now feels a little dated in comparison. With seven different people credited with some combination of the music, lyrics, and book, it’s all gotten a little patchwork.
Luckily, they’ve found a boy who is so believable that these minor imperfections go almost unnoticed.
Nolan Almeida, the 17-year-old currently playing the title role, is this generation’s Peter Pan. And he may very well be definitive. He performs the show as if he’s a little kid pretending in his bedroom, jumping from bed to bed. He bounces and soars and strikes poses and thumps his chest and moans and groans and yes, he crows. He’s fully committed from his first moment, showboating in all of the best ways. Flipping in flight, dancing when he’s not really dancing, it’s kinetic youth at its finest. He’s so strong, in fact, that one may worry that he’s already playing his greatest role. Let’s hope that isn’t the case.
Matthew Murphy
Joining him is a non-Equity, multicultural, multi-talented roster of adults, children, singers, dancers, gymnasts, pirates, Lost Boys, and crocodiles. Cody Garcia plays Captain Hook by slinking and slivering, barking and yapping, waltzing and tarantelling. They are so dastardly that they almost seem to expect boos from the little ones during the curtain call. No such luck — they are despicable but equally delightful. And a crowd-favorite, as all good villains should be.
It’s an open secret that national tours often have to cut corners and costs (in comparison to their New York counterparts) to truck their way around the country. That is simply not true of Peter Pan. The flying (Paul Rubin is the Flying Sequence Choreographer) is wow-inducing from the start and absolutely never gets old. Tinker Bell (design by Paul Kieve) zips around the stage and the trick is delightful. And when Almeida dances to his shadow, cartoonishly stretchy along with Bengali’s projections, it’s downright smile-starting.
And that is not to mention the set, designed by Anna Louizos, the most expansive and dynamic I’ve seen at the National Theatre. The technical aspects alone are worth the cost of admission, especially for the littles. You just have to go in knowing there will be a constant hum of giggles and cries and snack-opening that undercurrents the show.
It’s all so vibrant, so animated, so awe-inspiring — you hardly even notice the wires. Not that you would want to anyway.
Peter Pan runs about 2 hours with one intermission. Recommended for ages 5 and up.
Peter Pan runs through April 21 at Washington DC’s Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Durham NC, Cincinnati, Chicago, Washington DC, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Atlanta and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Peter Pan – National Tour (2024)
NETworks Presentations
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
Share this post
