Skip to main content
PETER  PAN AND WENDY

The best reviews of Peter Pan and Wendy at the Shakespeare Theatre Company are not in the media but in the minds of the children.  Their squeals of delight and amazement are clear that this is one fantastic show.    I doubt that any of the under five year old set seated around me understood the meaning of the words or the social issues this updated version of a complicated classic  re-presents. But they will remember the magic of live theater.   
This up-dated Peter Pan, is a show as much for adults as for kids and not because it is a nostalgic (or not) reworking of a second childhood experience when we first encountered Peter, Wendy, the Lost Boys of Never Never Land, Captain Hook, Tiger Lily and Tinkerbell, and the beloved Nana.  
For this Peter Pan is not a re-setting of the story in a modern scenery with clothes to match (and in this one some wear clothes are appropriate  J. M.  Barrie’s time period) but rather that as the characters are addressing modern ideas, they share human experiences and emotions that are not limited to any one age group or century.  
Lauren Gunderson is the brilliant adapter of the oft retold Peter Pan story and Alan Paul, the director of this sparkling production. Justin Mark is Peter Pan, Isabella Star LaBlanc is Tiger Lily, and Sinclair Daniel  is Wendy Darling.  Jenni Barber is both Mrs. Darling and Tinkerbell and Derek Smith, Mr. Darling and Captain Hook.  All the boys are great but there are a few behind the stage designers whose work is indispensable for the fun  Puppet designer James Ortiz for his great crocodile that swallowed the clock, flying choreographer Paul Rubin and fight choreographer David Leong and for Special Effects Jeremy Chernick.  And of course, William Berlonni, Animal Trainer for Nana and the Whole Shadow Animation team who brought us Peter Pan’s Shadow.  
At the Shakespeare Theatre Company until Jan. 12, 2020. 


Popular posts from this blog

  Once is here again!   The Brooklyn Gallery Players reach into the treasure chest of great musicals to bring Once alive and on stage in Brooklyn (until to December 17, 2023). Director Mark Gallagher , and Music Directors David Fletcher and Brendon McCray have crafted a vibrant production, seamlessly integrating the 15 member cast in roles  as both actors and musicians. Set in Dublin, the  formula for the poignant love triangle  is simple. Patrick Newhart  plays Guy, an Irish musician who has given up  on love as he sings the award winning classic  Falling.  Newhart mastered the bombastic busking guitar style and performed each of his songs with intensity and passion Sophie Smith-Brody  is Girl,  a Czech woman  who will inspire him to try again both in  love and with music. Smith-Brody performed each of her disparate songs with aplomb,  from the opening classical piece to her plaintive solos – If You Want Me and The Hill.  The performance starts  with an “ impromptu”  p
               TINA - THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL  at The National Theatre              In the 1970s, I  had spent weeks climbing around ruins in Peru.  I heard music of the Andes all over.  I  was  finally at  Machu Picchu to spend the night so I could get up early  and climb to see the sunrise from the top of the ruins.   As I got to steps by the gatekeepe,  I could hear his boom box blaring across the Andes “I Wanna Take You Higher”  by Tina Turner.   You don’t have to go climbing the Andes to hear her songs — Tina-The Tina Turner Musical  isright here  at the National Theatre, Washington DC,  until  Oct. 23, 2022.    The show has broken all records with the awards it has received since in premiered in April 2018 in London.  No one questions that Tina is a musical legend but  for this show  accolades to  the stars Naomi Rodgers and Zurin Villanueva who alternate in the  spectacular role.   At every performance there will be people  who remember seeing Tina “back when” and
  Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando — sparkling wit and ageless wisdom —   at   Constellation Theatre — gone but not forgotten In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography ,  the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change.  Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing  movies and stage plays.  Constellation Theatre Company continued  the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando .    Five actors  take on dozens of roles as characters or in the  chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace,  condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes.   Orlando (Mary Myers) is  ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of  Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor)  or involved with a mysterious Russian princess (Edmee - Marie Faal) or pursued