Peter Pan

The story of Peter Pan is so well known it almost needs no introduction; there have been many musical versions and pantomimes too numerous to mention.  The production team wisely chose a straight forward version with relatively unknown music, but a version retelling the story faithfully and very suited to a large cast of children from very young to sixteen years.

I found the comments in the programme regarding the rehearsal period interesting and encouraging as it showed the dedication of the production team over a quite short but intense period which obviously keeps the children’s concentration and maintains their interest and commitment.

This show was fun, the principal cast had been well chosen with a dynamic and bouncy Peter Pan and a very talented and humorous Tinkerbelle, who, despite a knee injury really held the audience’s attention with her mime and facial expressions, very well done.

This was a large cast who all worked well together, the story progressed well and the audience, many of whom were quite young, were entertained to the end.

There was a lot of talent among the company which bodes well for the future, the singing was good and the excellent sound ensured we heard the words to the dialogue and songs when nerves (at the first performance) overcame a few performers.

The scenery was very good and I much enjoyed the ‘Lost Boys’ underground cave and the deck of the pirate ship was excellent.  There was no mention in the programme of set design or construction, if it was society built then very well done, but if hired ... well it was a good set with good cloths.

The costumes were also very good and the children looked ‘just right’ on all occasions. A great crocodile, a cuddly ‘Nana’ dog, a swash buckling Captain Hook,  a very pretty Mrs Darling and lovely fairies stood out among the well dressed cast.

The direction and limited choreography was good, well suited to the children’s abilities and although there were 56 in the company, the director used clever groupings and when the stage was full it was still interesting. I loved the opening with the fairies listening to the story with Peter Pan and the darling family behind the gauze, it looked exquisite.

I found the (unknown to me) music rather dull, the small orchestra did their best but tempo’s were slow and needed to be more upbeat, the children obviously enjoyed singing but I felt there could have been more attack from the pit particularly in some of the full company numbers.

This was an entertaining first night, an accomplished performance from a very mixed ability cast. Tony and I enjoyed this youth production, the first I have seen from Spellbound. Well done, I hope the other performances were as well received by appreciative audiences as it was on the first night.

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