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York, Gillan & Mayor Join Wilson for RFH Peter Pan

Susannah York, James Gillan, Lottie Mayor and David Bamber will join Richard Wilson this Christmas in George Stiles and Anthony Drewe's Peter Pan - A Musical Adventure when it returns to London's Royal Festival Hall for 32 performances only from 19 December 2002 to 11 January 2003.

The musical, from the creators of the Olivier Award-winning Honk!, premiered at the Festival Hall in April 2001 in a one-off concert performance which starred the late John Thaw and his wife Sheila Hancock. The new, recast and fully-staged production will be directed by Ian Talbot, artistic director of the Open Air Theatre's New Shakespeare Company, and accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Set in Neverland, a place where boys never grow up, Peter Pan tells of a magical world inhabited by fairies and pirates, including the evil Captain Hook from whom Peter has to save Wendy and the Lost Boys.

James Gillan, who takes the title role, was Olivier-nominated for his 1996 role in The Who’s Tommy, while his other musical credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Starlight Express, Pippin, Golem and Godspell.

York, who plays the Narrator, has most recently been seen on stage in Picasso’s Women, Amy’s View and, for the RSC, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Camino Real and Hamlet; her many screen credits include Tunes of Glory, The Killing of Sister George, They Shoot Horses Don't They, A Second Chance and We'll Meet Again.

Also in the cast are Olivier Award-winner David Bamber (On the Razzle, Honk! and My Night with Reg, for which he won the Best Actor Olivier) as Smee, Lottie Mayor (Whistle Down the Wind, Martin Guerre, Oliver, Where’s Charley?) as Wendy and Claire Moore as Mrs Darling.

The musical, based on the original play by JM Barrie, has a book by Willis Hall with music and lyrics by Stiles and Drewe. The new production is designed by Will Bowen with costumes by Changing Rooms' Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. During the run of the musical, the ballroom of the Festival Hall will be transformed into a Neverland inspired by the work of children from local schools.

It's presented by Imagination Entertainments and Raymond Gubbay with the Festival Hall.

- by Terri Paddock

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