“I’m Flying.” (from L) Micah Turner Lee as John, Reed Epley as Michael, Hawa Kamara as Wendy, Nolan Almeida as Peter Pan. Photo by Matthew Murphy.
“Peter Pan” is a musical based on a 1904 play, “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” by Sir James M. Barrie and his subsequent 1911 novel, “Peter and Wendy.” The play opened on Broadway in 1905 with Maude Adams as Peter. The first Broadway musical version, with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein, opened in 1950 and starred Jean Arthur as Peter Pan and Boris Karloff in the dual roles of Captain Hook/George Darling. Bernstein’s original score was reduced to only five songs due to the leading players’ limited vocal range, and the show closed within a year. The much more memorable 1954 Broadway production was directed by Jerome Robbins. featuring music by Moose Charlap and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. Additional music by Jule Styne was added with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The stars, Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Richard as Captain Hook, won Tony Awards. This version was the first full-scale Broadway show presented in color on television and has been rebroadcast many times. Through the years, there have been several Broadway revivals and tours, as well as film versions.
…we see how technology can really make a time-honored musical a brand new show…Veteran director and Tony nominee Lonny Price has guided a production that keeps intact the beauty of Barrie’s original play and novel…
This non-Equity production features a racially and ethnically diverse cast of young performers. After a December try-out in St. Paul MN, Baltimore’s Hippodrome is the first stop on a national tour booked through April 2025. The show uses the original script adapted by Robbins with additional material and revisions by Broadway’s first Native American playwright, Larissa FastHorse. She addresses the original script’s poor depiction of indigenous people’s culture by removing offensive dialogue and songs. The point is also well made by the casting with multicultural actors of Native American, African, Japanese, and Eastern European descent. She also enhanced the role of women in the story. There are singing, dancing, and fighting female pirates, and the female leads sing solos and converse with each other rather than always through Peter. Ms. FastHorse has said: “The story is complicated and beautiful….My goal for doing it was to make it not cause harm…Our cast looks like America.”
Nolan Almeida’s performance as Peter Pan is remarkable for a 16-year-old actor, with a magnetic stage presence that predicts a great future in the theater. His voice is strong and has a husky, appealing quality as he speaks some of the lyrics. He is full of energy as he bounds across the stage, and his acrobatic “flying” is very skillful. Almeida’s characterization wrings a laugh or a tear from the audience in various scenes.
Hawa Kamara portrays a delightfully charming Wendy, a care-giving, nurturing “mother” to the Lost Boys in Neverland. Recording artist Raye Zaragoza, in the role of Tiger Lily, matches her vocal skills with a strong portrayal of a tribal leader. Cody Garcia’s Captain Hook is comically threatening, an exasperating adversary to Peter Pan, and reminds me of the typical villain in the silent films of the early 20th century. Garcia’s scenes with foil Smee, beautifully played by Kurt Perry, evokes memories of vaudeville stage comic routines. The chorus, portraying pirates, Tiger Lily’s band, and the Lost Boys, have many scenes of dancing, singing, and fighting to keep the action going and the audience amused.
Lorin Latarro, Paul Rubin’s flying sequences and Sordelet Inc.’s fight direction provided the varied and complicated choreography, including a tap dance without tap shoes! The Darling boys—John (William Foon, alternating with Micah Lee) and Michael (Reed Epley, alternating with Camden Kwok)—had their moments to shine in song and were very exciting to watch in the flying sequence. As the boys’ mother, Shefali Deshpande opened the show with a poignant and sentimental “Tender Shepherd.” Special notice goes to Christina Braa—it’s not easy to portray a pirate, Wendy’s daughter, a native, and a crocodile all in one production!
The setting of “Peter Pan” is no longer Victorian England, but modern America, and the creatives have done a terrific job making the production exciting and attractive. Sarafina Bush’s costume design and Jared Janas’ wig, hair, and make-up design provide color, contrast, and flare to the scenic design by Anna Louizos. From Hook’s wig to the creepy crocodile outfit, their work added many interesting visuals. The sets were detailed, artistic, artfully arranged, and engaging, from the Darling bedroom—with giant shutters, bookshelves, and a fireplace—to the boys’ large bunk bed and the multi-level pirate ship. David Bengali’s projection design and Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting design combined to give Neverland a thrilling effect, and the flying sequence designs left the audience breathless. Here we see how technology can really make a time-honored musical a brand new show. One look at the talking man-in-the-moon moving across a cloudy sky was enough to convince me.
Paul Kieve’s design for Tinker Bell made a simple blinking light on a nearly invisible wire turn into a believable and beloved character. Kai Harada’s sound design—with speakers surrounding the proscenium on three sides—kept the musical arrangements by Andy Einhorn and the fight/dance music arrangements by David Dabbon crisp and clear. The nine piece orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Marro, provided a fast-paced overture and entr’acte in addition to spirited accompaniment to songs and dances.
Veteran director and Tony-nominee Lonny Price has guided a production that keeps intact the beauty of Barrie’s original play and novel; added a Jule Styne song with new lyrics by Amanda Green (daughter of the original lyricist); and found a beautiful ballad, cut from the original production, which further explains Peter’s reasoning for not returning home. He has brought an evening of theater that he describes as a meditation on mortality and the conflicted feelings adults and children have on the process of growing up. He wants the children in the audience to “not only fall in love with ‘Peter Pan’, but to fall in love with the theater and to come back.”
Running Time: Two hours with one intermission.
“Peter Pan” runs through February 25, 2024, at the Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St., Baltimore MD 21201. For more information and to purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 410-837-7400 or visit online.
