THEATER REVIEW : Fantasy and Arrested Development Fly High : Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera’s ‘Peter Pan’ is a colorful, big-budget production, but its Captain Hook is a little too nice.

Have you spanked your inner child today?

You’d have to, if yours behaved with the same utter disdain for adult responsibility shown by that irrepressible puer aeternis, Peter Pan.

“I won’t grow up!” croons Peter in a fitting anthem to his perpetual pursuit of self-gratification.

And you thought we were past the ‘80s.

Within the unfettered imaginative confines of the theater, however, watching Peter’s exploits can also evoke the positive side of childhood abandon--that capacity for wonder without which life would be very gray indeed.

The Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera’s of “Peter Pan” captures that elusive childlike spirit in a colorful, big-budget production that will leave even sober accountants gaping in wide-eyed, open-jawed amazement as Peter and his child companions take to the air.

It’s the best use the company has made to date of its venue change to the expansive Granada Theatre, taking full advantage of the bigger stage space to accommodate Broadway-size sets, and of the expanded fly space for, well, flying.

The aeronautics are by Flying by Foy, the theatrical effects specialists with more than 3,000 “Peter Pan” productions under their wings (including the Mary Martin original in 1954).

But the flying is only one of the surprises director/choreographer Michael Barnard has in store.

It was Barnard who last year breathed new life into the SBCLO’s “Pirates of Penzance,” in which he envisioned all the characters as adults who never grew up, and even built his dance steps around children’s games like leapfrog, tag and tug-of-war.

Enlisting Barnard to steer “Peter Pan” was a natural transition, given the show’s themes of fantasy and arrested development.

Carrying on a casting tradition, the androgynous Peter’s green leotards are donned by Amy Griffin, whose Ado Annie had audiences in hysterics in the SBCLO season opener “Oklahoma!”

Griffin proves just as delightful in midair. From the moment she sails fearlessly into the Darling children’s bedroom to spirit them away on their grand adventure, she’s a nontop blur of energetic song and dance.

Details

* WHAT: “Peter Pan”

* WHEN: Through Dec. 19, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8, Sundays at 7, 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays, and special 3 p.m. matinee on Tuesday, Dec. 7

* WHERE: The Granada Theatre, 1216 State St., Santa Barbara

* COST: $18-$29.50 (adults), $9-$13.50 (children)

* FYI: For reservations or information, call (800) 366-6064