Jeremy Webb is serving up a delightful platter of My Favourite Things in his Christmas Pantomime adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic story Peter Pan, now playing at Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall Stage, in an extended run through January 11, 2020.
The story is a great mixture of Barrie’s original, with definite tips of the hat to the 1991 Stephen Spielberg film Hook (which starred Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman), and told in the British Pantomime style: poking fun at itself, breaking the fourth wall, and weaving contemporary music and hyper-local jokes and references throughout. Webb also does a great job at bringing the heart of Peter Pan into the 21st Century by removing the plot points and characters that are racist and colonialist. The music featured in the show is a beautiful mixture of songs by contemporary East Coast singer-songwriters including Ian Sherwood, Christina Martin, Heather Rankin and T. Thomason, and well known pop and rock classics.
In this version Wendy (Julie Lumsden), Michael (Jeremy Legat), and John (Joseph Zita) have fairly absent parents (David Light and Kelly Holiff), and they don’t know the story of Peter Pan, in fact Michael and John are much more captivated by tales of pirates. When Peter (Brandon Antonio) arrives in their bedroom and invites them to fly off with him to Never You Mind Land the children don’t know quite what to expect. They soon learn that there is an ongoing feud between Peter, Tink (Becca Guilderson) and their friends the Lost Children, and Captain Hook (Holiff) and her band of swashbuckling pirates. When John (and his bear) decide that perhaps it might be more fun to join the pirate crew, Peter and Hook are drawn into an epic battle for the ages.
A huge part of what makes this show so magical is the cast. Jeremy Legat is a cynical-beyond his-years Michael, which is nicely countered by the softer and more idealistic Julie Lumsden as Wendy. Joseph Zita captures the mischievous exuberance of a young boy excited to have the opportunity to live out his dreams, but who finds the reality more frightening than he expected. Ryan Rogerson was born to play Smee, the much put upon second in command to Her Honour Dame Captain Hook, who is just a smidgen high maintenance. Brandon Antonio creates a very likeable Pan, impish and naive, but unlike in some adaptations of this story, his Peter has a sense of empathy and care that makes you understand why the Lost Kids and Tink like him so much. Becca Guilderson gives a magnificent performance as the love-struck Tink, and the audience’s touchstone to the show. She has a gorgeous and powerful singing voice, which she infuses with all Tink’s teenage-caliber angst to hilarious effect. There is also fantastic ensemble work in this show, every Lost Child and Pirate is distinctive and on their own journey, and it really helps to create the richness of this specific world. Kelly Holiff redefines “powerhouse” in the creation of this truly hysterical and absolutely unique Captain Hook. After Holiff finished singing her first eleven o’clock number I could feel the collective energy of over four hundred audience members wondering whether they could swing buying tickets to see the show again because it’s impossible to see her perform that number just once and to leave the theatre feeling entirely satisfied. Thankfully, though, there are at least three more eleven o’clock numbers for Hook to follow. Holiff has a gigantic voice, sharp comedic timing, and a sense of fun that infuses perfectly with Webb’s sense of playfulness, and the concept here of silliness upon silliness wrapped up in silliness, which is what makes this show so charming and ideal for children.
Tamara Marie Kucheran creates a magical set that evokes so many warm and fanciful images of childhood, and Helena Marriott’s costumes work beautifully within this world as well. I especially loved her Scottish Pirate, who looks like he moonlights at the Lower Deck. Nana, the Darlings’ dog/Nurse (Ryan Wilson) is also utterly delightful. Vicky Williams’ lighting and Joe Micallef’s sound design also work to add to the depth of the magic here. Lisa St.Clair is the Musical Director and she helps to bring a wide array of different styles of music together in a way that makes them all sound like they all belong to the same world. Stephanie Graham’s whimsical choreography, especially for “Superstars” (David Tyson/ Cassandra Estevez), made my heart soar. Jeremy Webb is very adept at finding creative and entertaining ways of making the impossible possible on stage, from creating montages to suggest time passing, to finding ways to create an ambiance of epic battle within the confines of a small stage, Peter Pan is a huge show, with so many literal moving parts, but Webb makes the orchestration of it all look seamless and easy.
The story of a child who never grew up and who swashbuckled and triumphed over grownup pirates (and time tick tocking away) has always had a special place in my heart. I think subconsciously I had been looking for a way to fall back in love with these characters, in a way that was distanced from all the original’s deeply problematic elements. This is certainly the Peter Pan I had been waiting for. The only drawback to this show is that when it’s over you can’t just rewind it and watch it all over again, no matter how hard you clap, or how earnestly you believe.
Peter Pan plays at Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall Stage (1593 Argyle Street, Halifax) until January 11th, 2020. Performances run Tuesdays to Sundays at 7:30pm with 2:00pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $30.00-$87.00 and are available HERE, by phone at 902.429.7070 or at the Box Office on Argyle Street. The show is two hours and ten minutes (including an intermission) and is recommended for children five years old and up. December 3rd is Industry Night, December 4th is Talkback Night, January 2 is a Relaxed Performance, January 5th at 7:30pm is Pay What You Can. There are no Evening Performances on Sunday, December 8, 15, 22 and No Performance on Wednesday December 25th. There are additional Daytime Matinees on Tuesday, December 24th, Thursday, December 26th and Tuesday, December 31st.
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