Peter Pan The Musical

So here we go then, another show report for Castaway Theatre Group and another show featuring 1,000 children.  Ok clearly I’m exaggerating here, I know there were only 950!  Ok, so obviously I am messing around here a little but, yet again, you have managed to produce a show with so many youngsters, that you need to have two different casts!  I have produced shows with youngsters in and I know that, logistically, it can be a bit of a headache but here you are with 77 children, keeping track of everything must have been a nightmare!  If dealing with a plethora of children wasn’t impressive enough, then you just need to take into account the fact that each year they keep coming back and, based on the size of their smiles during the production, must just be having a ball.

Impressive youth numbers aside, I need to get on with the review but, before I do, I do need to give a little apology.  Unfortunately, due to my own stupidity, we were 10 minutes late for your production.  I don’t believe we missed much though, as we entered Mrs Darling was just about to hide Peter’s shadow, but I can obviously only comment on the part of the show we saw.

As we entered the auditorium, the first thing that I noticed was the sheer impressiveness of the staging, which I believe was hired from Scenery Hire.  The sets were incredibly detailed and really helped elevate the production.  All the sets were great but particularly impressive was The Darling House and the scene where Peter, Wendy, Michael and John flew over London.  However, the down side to this scene was that the stagehands pulling on the ropes, were very clearly noticeable at the side of the stage!  The props, organised by Pauline Warren and Sharon Hansford, were just as impressive as the sets and they worked together really well to produce a full well rounded effect, the rowing boats were especially good.

The costumes were equally impressive and Peter Pan and Hook’s outfits definitely fitted the part/s.  The lost boys all had matching costumes which, again, fitted their roles well.  Overall, the costumes for this production were great and a lot of work must have gone in to ensure that every child had their own unique costume, so huge congratulations to Lynn Lee Brown, Joyce Harland, Margaret Robins, Viv MacLauchlan and Christine Jones for their remarkable efforts.  Make up was under the control of Sheila Driver and it looked good and natural, as no-one seemed to have too much or not enough.  Hair was also good, with no obvious or glaring issues, Although, Hook’s wig was an understated masterpiece.

Sound and lighting was under the control of The Octagon Theatre.  During my time as a Noda Rep, I have seen several productions in The Octagon with varying levels of success in the sound department.  Luckily, this was one of those positive productions and the sound quality was good.  However, there were a few technical hic-cups but these were very minimal, a low level buzzing sound that thankfully disappeared during the first act, a slightly crackly mic during one of the second act scenes and a couple of the kids in one of The Lost Boy scenes did not seem to have mics on, unfortunately this was glaringly obvious when they were talking.  However, there was another quite unusual sound issue in this production, several times during the show, we could hear what sounded like the backstage walkie-talkies, playing through the sound system!  At first, I thought it was my imagination but myself and my guest, quite clearly heard these come into life at least 3 or 4 times!

The music for this production was under the direction of Matthew Holmes who managed to create a strong/rich sound throughout the production.  The orchestra only consisted of six musicians but sounded like so much more.  The singing was strong throughout the whole production and the harmonies between characters worked very well.  The singing voices of Peter Pan (Jessamy Bowditch, the night I came) and Hook (Paul Graham) were very good and Paul’s voice had a strong operatic feel to it.  All the songs were performed well but “I Believe in Fairies” had to be an audience favourite, it was great to see that you managed to get the whole audience up on its feet during this song.  I also really enjoyed “Indians” as well.

The choreography was managed by Kirsty Beaumont.  There didn’t seem to be an awful lot of chorography in this production but what was there was performed well and looked good.

Having such a large amount of youngsters involved, presumably, allowed you to be able to pick the crème de la crème for your production and, based on the night I came, that is exactly what you were able to do.  The casting for this production was spot on and everyone played their part to perfection however, when using two different casts it may be helpful, for the audience, to identify in the programme which nights Team Pan are on and which nights are Team Peter, as this was not obvious.  On the night I came the stars of the show had to be Jessamy Bowditch and Paul Graham who were fantastic in their roles as Peter Pan and Hook.  Paul’s performance was perfectly panto-esque, which was exactly the right way to play the part, I had to stop myself from shouting “boo” and “behind you”.  Jessamy played Peter with just the right amount of naivety and cockiness and owned the stage whenever she was on it, or even over it.  Her singing voice was stunning and, yet again, this was another unsurpassed performance from Jessamy and, as I have mentioned in other review’s, I am sure that Jessamy has a bright future waiting for her on The West End stage.

This was a very good production which ticked every box perfectly, strong leads; great scenery; beautiful singing and lovely dancing.  There were a few issues with blocking (especially during scenes involving The Lost Boys standing in a long line) and occasionally some of the dialogue was delivered without much emphasis on emotion, although these were very minimal issues that didn’t distract from the quality of the production in any way at all.  Overall, this is easily the best production I have seen Castaway’s do since being a Noda Rep and definitely one of my favourite productions I have seen so far this year.  As an extra note, on the night I came, there was a woman, sat quite near the front, who kept shouting out randomly during the show, I was very impressed how this constant shouting out didn’t distract your young cast at all, especially as I know some adult performers who would have struggled with that kind of distraction, so well done to all involved, great show and great performances.

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