Peter Pan
James M. Nederlander brings to its stage one of the most memorable classic children's plays, Peter Pan. Known also as Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, J.M. Barrie penned the play in 1904, and there have been numerous versions, remakes, sequels, prequels, or spin-offs of Peter Pan. Still, its main storyline has always been about a mischievous little boy who can fly and has many adventures on the island of Neverland. Peter Pan, typically played by a female, has a male playing the role. There's no Nana the Dog, but Liza watching over the children, and this production has the ending veered from Barrie's original ending; Peter allows Wendy and the children to return home, opts for Barrie's alternative, an afterthought written in 1911 where Peter returns years later to bring Wendy back to Never Never Land, only to discover that she has grown old, married and with a daughter. There is still a "Happily Ever After" ending when Peter leaves for another adventure with Wendy's daughter. The 24-member cast features Nolan Almeida as Peter, Hawa Kamara (Wendy), Reed Epley (Michael), William Foon (John), and Cody Garcia as Captain Hook. It was a delightful cast, but special mention goes to phenomenal kids Michah Turner Lee and Camdem Kwok, along with Eplpey and Foon (mentioned above), who are incredible performers. Kurt Perry performed flawlessly in the amusing role of Smee and Garcia as the diabolically and fiendishly Captain Hook provided a noteworthy performance.
I loved the energy and excitement in the play that peeked when Peter came flying onto the stage and the incredible and vivid scene from Production Design David Bengali and Sound (Kai Harada) when Peter, Wendy, John, and Michael flew to Neverland. And the scenic Design(Anna Louizos), Lighting (Amith Chandrasaker), music (Jonathan Marro), and John Mezzio as Music Coordinator, but the show-stealing was Paul Kieve's amazing Tinker Bell Design. Still, there were times when it lost some of that energy and the kids' attention in the audience. The problem with classic productions like this is time and technology. Today's animated cartoons and movies are so advanced and artificially generated using an A.I. story generator specialized by an A.I. writer dedicated to AI-assisted story writing that we lose the imagination of great writers like Barrie, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Rowling, and C.S. Lewis. You would never see an A.I. write Barrie's words: "The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it." Or Carroll's, "Why it's simply impassible! Alice: Why don't you mean impossible? Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing's impossible!" Or even the words of Margery Williams, "Real isn't how you are made; It's a thing that happens to you," in The Velveteen Rabbit, without auto-correcting it. I did see one little girl sitting behind me, eyes lit up with the joy of witnessing the magic of theater that reminded me of the childhood imagination that excited me and countless other adventure story enthusiasts about the beautiful, undiscovered things of life. That light is the light of a future writer, adventurer, and the maker of dreams. It's an individual light that an A.I. could never see.
“Rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a flame”
An A.I. could never provide the passion, pain, and personal saga Barrie wrote about when penning Peter Pan, which included the death of his older brother David, who died in an ice-skating accident, or the joys of meeting the Llewelyn Davies family, including George, Jack, Peter, Michael, and Nico, which inspired Peter Pan. How would it understand Barrie's thoughts about why Peter never wanted to grow old or why his parents felt he didn't want to age due to his brother's loss? Or how Neverland, Tinkerbell, the Tiger Lilys, and the Lost Boys were conceived? Barrie's imagination was known to be instrumental in movies like It's A Wonderful Life, where George saves Harry's life in an ice-skating accident, similar to Barrie's brother David and why Michael Jackson named his ranch Neverland. After Barrie died, he gave his royalty in perpetuity from Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity to help children continuously. Peter Pan is the guiding light for the dreamers of the future. We can't lose the wonderful world of our imagination to robotic intelligence that assimilates how we feel from past writings of our fantasies and dreams. We need new, younger dreamers who will change the world with imaginative thinking that is crazy enough to believe we can create films, provide sound, and even fly to other worlds. Just imagine what life would be if we forgot these adventurous stories or lost that little girl's dreams sitting behind me. We need stories like Peter Pan to remind us and our children that life is a cabaret of hopes and dreams.
So take your kids to Peter Pan and let them dream again before they lose their dreams to I, Robot.
⭐⭐⭐
James M. Nederlander Theatre
Peter Pan: The Broadway Musical
By Sir J.M. Barrie
Directed by Lonny Price
Playing Now- April 7, 2024
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