Peter and The Star Catcher
Peter and The Star Catcher
Based on a novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
By Rick Elice
Music by Wayne Barker
Directed by Michael Carleton
Musical Direction by Lulu Picart
Starring Stephen James Anthony, Katrina Michaels, and Perry Ojeda
Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando FL.
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Everybody loves a back story; and “Peter Pan” is full of unquestioned answers. It took humorist Dave Berry and thriller writer Ridley Pearson to create those questions, and the result pulled down a stack of Tonys. We we meet yet un-named orphan Peter (Anthony) and a mysterious chest of magic bound for some exotic kingdom where Lord Aster (Paul Bernardo) plans to toss it into a volcano. Why waste all that literary magic? Because it might be… dangerous! A fake second chest is filled with sand to deceive Piratical Black Stashe (Ojeda). Both chests depart on separate ships: the speedy “Wasp” with Lord Aster and the slower and presumably safer “Neverland” with his precocious daughter Molly (Michaels). We are all up for a chase, and when Mr. Stache captures both chests they each seem filled with sand. There’s magic somewhere on this remote island run by ominous Fighting Prawn (Steven Lima) and we finally get the back story payoff of missing hands and ticking crocodiles. More importantly, Peter receives the ambiguous boon of eternal life on the cusp of adult hood. If you thought middle school was a blast, cheer for Peter and his lost boys, but otherwise it’s really sort of a sad place to be. Maybe he’ll get a date with Molly’s daughter in a few decades.
So how great is this performance? Technically its virtuoso, but the first act is occasionally hard to follow and there are plenty of gags just for gag’s sake. (I attribute that to the Dave Berry influence). Brett Scott’s set is marvelous, and we see almost every stage trick in the books from clever light effects to the center stage trap door to the tiny 4th wall breaking ships scurrying about stage. A good example occurs when Molly jumps down a hatch made of a rope and four men. She hops and squats, they rise up, and the effect draw a small “oh!” from the crowd. The acting was often played for pantomime melodrama; Mr. Stache did all but twirl himself. The second act opened up with a musical number that could be a successful fringe act all on its own, and both Smee (Mark Ferreira) and The Fighting prawn (Mr. Lima) struggles as alternate show stealers. Mr. Anthony’s Peter was did a serious job as the beaten and abandoned child yet he didn’t seem to carry the undirected anger one might except from a person in that position. One last highlight worth mention is the crocodile; it’s a creature of nothing but shadow and light and menace and again it’s the stage craft that makes this show a must see. Oh, to be in England! And have a big budget and a clever crew and a few hundred lights to hang them upon!
For more information on Orlando Shakespeare Theater, visit http://www.orlandoshakes.org
