Reviews

Peter Pan – The British Musical (Stevenage, Gordon Craig Theatre)

| |

11 April 2013

Enterprising theatres
have been realising that the school Easter and summer holiday periods
offer them the chance to stage a larger-scale family-oriented show
with more originality than the bought-in traditional pantomime of the
Christmas season. If local children, youth theatre members looking
forward to a later career combined with professional performers and
creative team members who want to try something out of their usual
comfort zone can be involved, so much the better.

This Easter holiday
Peter Pan has set sail in Stevenage. This is the
Piers Chater-Robinson musical version staged by Catherine Lomax
with Phil Dennis in charge of a seven-piece band. It’s quite an
elaborate production with well-managed flying and projection
sequences and a flexible set by Andy Newall. Unlike some musical
adaptations, this one sticks closely to the original stage version of
J M Barrie‘s tale.

Lomax is well served by
her cast, led by Amy Bird‘s Peter, who catches just the right blend
of amorally selfish androgyny and child-like playfulness. Grace
Lewis‘ Wendy is a teenager on the cusp of maturity, an older sister
who knows right from wrong but can still dream of what exciting marvels might exist
outside her domestic world. The Darlings are David Haydn and Sarah
Lawn with Martyn Payne as a mob-capped Nana and a snapping livid green
crocodile.

The crocodile, of
course, is in ticking pursuit of Captain Hook. Daniel Page relishes
every nuance of the villain’s show-off nastiness, abetted by Matt Lee Steer‘s
Smee. Lighting designer John Maddox has devised Tinker Bell as a
laser beam, much to the delight of children in the audience. Two
teams of children share the parts of the Darling brothers, the Lost
Boys and the Indians with James Craven as a bespectacled John and
Freddie Bourn as teddybear-hugging Michael.