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THEATER REVIEW : ‘Peter Pan’ Shuns Depth for Pure Fun

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Fairy tales are the secular religion of the modern world, complete with their own commandments and proverbs. Sweep those cinders, little girl, and someday a handsome prince might carry you off to the castle, where you will live happily ever after.

Did Mama scold you for losing her cow, little boy? Climb that beanstalk, and you, too, might slay the evil giant and again be a hero in your mother’s eyes.

The appeal of fairy tales is eternal, like the forever-young feeling of “Peter Pan,” now in a Starlight Musical Theatre production flying through the Civic Theatre through June 4.

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The best of modern productions have dual messages for adults and children, as in Stephen Sondheim’s revisionist look at the Jack and Cinderella stories in the hit Broadway musical, “Into the Woods.”

Even the broad appeal of the movie “Big” stemmed from its parallels to “Peter Pan.” Tom Hanks played a man who was grown up physically but not emotionally. He brings the wonder of his childlike perspective to the adult world, but when it comes to sustaining an intimate relationship, it is not long before he doffs his pretense and adult persona, and runs home to Mama.

The Starlight Musical Theatre’s “Peter Pan,” alas, is not so psychologically ambitious. A revival of the 25-year-old musical adapted from the James M. Barrie novel, this “Peter Pan,” like its hero, hypes fun, not depth. Adults will find the price tag attached to not growing up obfuscated by a production that wants to be liked more than it wants to flash a mirror on what so many of us are really like. Still, the children who flocked to the opening night show, like the little ones who followed the Pied Piper, all seemed to have a blast.

And why not? With colorful pirates, dancing Indians, flying children and prancing crocodiles, kangaroos, shaggy dogs and magic galore, what is there for a child not to like?

Especially with the appealing gymnast Cathy Rigby at the helm as Peter. At 36, Rigby is tiny enough to look like one of the children herself--in fact, she’s shorter than Wendy, whom Peter whisks away to be the mother of the lost boys--and that adds to the sense that we really are in the NeverNeverland of a child’s imagination.

Certainly, a more challenging production might have played up the villainous side of Wendy’s father, Mr. Darling, whose threat becomes magnified when he is transformed into the wicked Captain Hook in NeverNeverland. To read between the lines for just a moment, Mr. Darling and Captain Hook are both men who did not want to grow up and resent the children for being the children they can no longer be.

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If Captain Hook sentences the children to walk the plank, that is but an extreme extension of the fear the children feel when their father, Mr. Darling, says, arbitrarily, that their dog must be shut up outside and they must take their evil-tasting medicine, even while he ducks taking his.

But Starlight’s Mr. Darling/Captain Hook, played by Bill Mullikin, could not be more fun--a great cartoon-like father and pirate--but also could not be any less of a threat. When he sings “Who’s the slimiest slime of them all? Captain Hook!” you’re inclined to sing right along with him. In fact, at times it’s a tossup as to whether it would be more fun to follow Hook or Peter Pan.

The Starlight production is much enhanced by the lovely fantasy of the set design by Michael J. Hotopp and Paul de Pass--especially in the fantastic jungle scenes of NeverNeverland--and the colorful costumes by Bill Hargate.

The child actors, if anything, play their parts more true to life than do the adults. Eighth-grader Michelle Panek is an especially lovely and clear-voiced Wendy. She makes you feel the yearning that the little girl has to be something more to the little boy who will not allow himself to be touched.

Noah J. Henry, an 8-year-old veteran of San Diego Opera’s “Madama Butterfly,” plays Wendy’s little brother, Michael, with precocious charm. He and brother John (Casey Reeves) blend in well with the appealing tribe of lost boys.

“Peter Pan” may be a trifle long for children--2 1/2 hours--but children familiar with the story should enjoy the twists and turns, especially those in NeverNeverland when the “fun” segments kick into high gear.

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And no group is more responsible for the fun than Captain Hook’s supporting pirates, who are such a comical delight that they seem a vaudeville act by themselves. So mesmerizing are these carousing clowns, in fact, that one wonders, sadly, when Peter defeats them, how much fun NeverNeverland will be without them.

Oh, well. One of the bonuses of this sugarplum of a production is that parents needn’t worry about it giving their children nightmares. But then, it won’t give the parents any lasting insights either.

“PETER PAN”

Based on the play by James M. Barrie. Music by Mark Charlap. Additional music by Jule Styne. Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. Additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Directed and choreographed by Don and Bonnie Ward. Musical direction, Lloyd Cooper. Sets, Michael J. Hotopp and Paul de Pass. Costumes, Bill Hargate. Lighting, Barbara DuBois. Sound, Bill Lewis. Technical direction, Larry Kane. Vocal direction, Fred Rigby. Flying by Foy. With Cathy Rigby, Michelle Panek, Casey Reeves, Joyce Schumaker, Noah J. Henry, Robert Owens, Pat White, Bill Mullikin, Bryan Hurlburt, Kaleb Held, Marko Janikas, Nathan Wing Bush, Alan Hewitt, David Fulton, Jason Russell, Jedediah Larson, Darryl Ferrera, Reina Bolles, Rankin Fischer, Joseph Della Sorte, Patrick Nollet, Duane Daniels, Bernardo Murillo and Ellen Zolezzi. At 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2, through June 4. At the Civic Theatre, 202 C St., San Diego.

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