‘Peter Pan’ for the ‘90s?

A boo and a hiss to your peevish piece on “Peter Pan” (June 22, Ventura County Life). Perhaps the Cabrillo Music Theater (which finished its two-week run of “Peter Pan” at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on June 25) should feel honored that the reviewer used their production of “The Music Man” as a standard. Still, he admits he doesn’t much care for “Peter Pan” as a musical theater, so it’s a shame he bothered to attend, since he spent much of his review of the show wishing he were watching something else.

What, Amy Griffin’s Pan was a street tough? Sounds like the reviewer is out of touch with the streets--and with the libretto. Griffin’s Peter was brash, boisterous and sometimes brusque, as befits a character that the script tells us grew up unnurtured, leads a troop of admiring boys without mishap through the pitfalls of a perilous (if fantastic) island, and not only cuts off the hand of his arch-enemy, but blithely feeds it to a passing crocodile.

But as portrayed in the Cabrillo Music Theater production, Peter was also sentimental, respectful, enthusiastic and good-hearted. Not your average tough guy of the streets--unless we’re talking Santa Monica in the ‘50s or Ojai 20 years ago.

With Griffin’s Pan thus labeled, how many parents eschewed the show because they didn’t want their kids exposed to “Pan in the Hood”?

JANET BERGAMO

Piru