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Peter Pan and Wendy
by Fountain Hills Youth Theater
Adaptation, Music
and Lyrics by Julie Anna Ayers-Hackmann, story based on J. M. Barrie's novel
“Peter and Wendy.” Somewhere there’s a land full of pirates and Indians
and fairies and Lost Boys who never grow old. The land is Neverland, an island
so small there is hardly any room between one adventure and another. Peter Pan
leads his group of Lost Boys through the adventures and the battles against
Captain Hook and his pirates. We catch a glimpse of Neverland through the eyes
of the three Darling children as they fly from their home in London to join
Peter in his latest adventures. This 1995 adaptation by Julie Anna Ayers-Hackmann
isn’t the classic you’re likely to be familiar with, but it’s a pretty
entertaining musical that offers some new angles on the iconic characters and
features such songs as Night Lights, The
Doodle Doo, and The Tick Tock Croc.
It opens with Jane going to bed with her Uncle Michael’s old teddy bear and
asking her mother Wendy for a bedtime story… THE PRODUCTION: Fountain Hills Youth Theater staged this one in their very
intimate theatre space that doesn’t allow for flying, but does allow for
plenty of creative staging by Director Ross
Collins and his group. That includes having adult Wendy (Allison
Brown) and her daughter Jane (Cara
Richman), after starting off the show with the beginning of the bedtime
story, watch in delight from the side of the stage as the bedtime story and
reminiscing emerges on center stage. That’s where we get a charming introduction the Darlings
in the form of The Darling Family and
a Night Lights lullaby and waltz. The
kids eager for adventure are Rebecca
Steiner as Wendy, David Woods as
John, and Connor Klein as Michael. Katie
Male delivers the lovely, heartfelt lullaby as Mrs. Darling and a comical
reaction to the possible adoption of all the Lost Boys (later also appearing as
a very convincing pirate Starkey) and Nicholas
Hambruch is the stuffy Mr. Darling who transforms hilariously into the
villainous Captain Hook who vainly craves flattery, is oft-irritated by his
bumbling That’s a hook he has courtesy of Peter Pan, in this show
unusually played by a real boy with Sebastian
Harris-Wylde who does a nice job trying to reunite with his Shadow (Elle
Feinstein, who also shines as Tinker Bell). The Pan also does well leading
his enthusiastic bunch of Lost Boys as they coax bedtime stories out of a
delighted Wendy. Hunter DiGrazia
squeezes a lot out of her smaller role as Tiger Lily, leading her athletic
Indian Maids in Blood Brothers and
having an amusing jealousy bout with Wendy over Peter Pan. While Emily
Spets is a rip as Hook’s sidekick Smee with a nerdy laugh and voice, the
duo leading a great crew of ditzy pirates. They all converge in a battle for
Neverland that includes everything from Matrix-like combat and debilitating
noogies. Performed September 19 - 28, 2014 Rob Hopper ~ Cast ~
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THE
SHOW:
pirates
(when really mad, he even rips out one of pirate Savoy
Thompson’s yellow braids), and is still getting used to his hook as he
keeps on nicking himself with it. 
Peter Pan: Sebastian Harris-Wylde