“Peter Pan” opened on Broadway in 1954. In that year Mary Martin and Cyril Richard (Captain Hook) earned Tony’s for their leads in the show. Mary Martin, whose name is synonymous with “Peter Pan”, will always be a show stopper.
Then Cathy Rigby picked up the baton and the 1991 Broadway production was nominated for Best Revival of a Musical. She returned to Broadway in 1998 and sometime between then and now, yours truly saw her flying through the rafters at the Civic Theatre. It was still an awesome sight.
It will be playing there through Aug. 4th
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| Nolan Almeida, Kenny Ramos (center) Raye Zaragoza and cast |
No doubt “Peter Pan” the musical is one for the kids and there were kids the night I attended, tons of them. After all who wouldn’t want to fly, be a kid for the rest of his/her life, live on an island, dance and sing, sing and dance mingle with bumbling pirates and watch as Tick Tock the Crocodile goes after Captain Hook to get another bite of the hooked madman, which it did. (Flight and visuals by David Dabbon and Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet.)
The musical is based on the play by Sir J. M. Barrie with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Morris (Moose) Charlap. In some circles it is considered a child’s classic, but what we saw on opening night was a shadow of the original.
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| Peter and the Darling children |
(“The Pow Wow Polka”, “What Makes the Red Man Red?”) were but some of the songs omitted from the original as they were offensive, politically incorrect and just did not fit into today’s vernacular. ‘A new song called “Friends Forever” with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Amanda Green, daughter of Adolph Green, the original lyricists now made what we saw politically correct, compliant and ready to roll.
The production boiled down to a singing and dancing( Lorin Latarro) show that ran for about 2+ hours. Everyone in the cast had beautiful voices (even the young un’s) and the dancing was terrific) Was it lively? Yes. But! OH! was it loud!!! The orchestra under the baton of Jonathan Marro played right into the deafening acoustics of the age old sound system of the Civic. (Kai Harada)
Did Peter (Nolan Almeida) lose his shadow? Yes. And did he find it again? Of course, yes. Actually, I can’t say enough about how perfect Almeida played into Peter. Nimble, fun living and on the move all the time). Was Tinkerbell there?(Paul Kieve designed the lighting for it) Yes. Lost Boys? Yes. Captain Hook?(Cody Garcia) Yes. Darling Family? Yes. Tiger Lily? (Raye Zaragoza) Yes. Tick Tock? Yes. So almost every character from the original was there, their roles were different making this "Peter Pan" a different show.
This new adaptation by playwright Larissa FastHorse is directed by Emmy Award winner Lonny Price and features choreography by Lorin Latarro which is fine, but the ending was changed.
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| Cast |
No spoiler this: Peter always was committed to staying young and returned to Neverland after dropping Wendy and her brothers to the Darling home (Anna Louizos). The rest you will have to see for yourselves what happens after that. As for yours truly, well she’s still looking for Neverland.
Enjoy the music, singing and dancing.
See you at the theatre.
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Aug. 4
Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown
Photo: Matthew Murphy
Tickets: $43 and up
Online: ticketmaster.com
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