"Peter and the Starcatcher," a new play by Rick Elice (co-author of "Jersey Boys"), is based on the children's book of the same name by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. They in turn based their book on the original Peter Pan story by James M. Barrie.
The resulting stage play is a children's tale reconfigured to delight and amuse adults who discover how an orphan boy (Joey deBettencour) eventually turns into Peter Pan and journeys to a far off place called Neverland.
"Peter and the Starcatcher," a new play by Rick Elice (co-author of "Jersey Boys"), is based on the children's book of the same name by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. They in turn based their book on the original Peter Pan story by James M. Barrie.
The resulting stage play is a children's tale reconfigured to delight and amuse adults who discover how an orphan boy (Joey deBettencour) eventually turns into Peter Pan and journeys to a far off place called Neverland.
Just as the Broadway smash "Wicked" took the audience back in time to Oz before the arrival of Dorothy and her little dog Toto, the imaginative "Peter and the Starcatcher" also serves as a prequel. This time the end result is a whacky Tony Award winning romp to Neverland aboard a pirate ship
Much of the fun is figuring out which of the onstage characters in Act I will eventually turn into Peter Pan, Captain Hook and the other characters in the Peter Pan story about pirates and lost boys who need a mother to tell them stories.
Both scenic designer Donyale Werle and costume designer Paloma Young received 2012 Tony Awards for their inspired, environmentally friendly designs fashioned literally from trash. Werle was delighted to "create something out of nothing" often achieving set design with little more than a piece of rope and clever lighting
Two more Tonys were awarded to lighting designer Jeff Croiter and sound designer Darron L West. The fifth Tony went to the actor playing Black Stache. In the touring company Stache is performed by John Sanders who is hilarious, particularly in the second act when he suffers an injury and embarks on a comic turn that brings down the house.
The playwright said he had fun "inventing as much connective tissue between this contemporary novel and Barrie's original play.
I tried to emulate stylistically all of the verbal tricks that James Barrie used in 1903: high comedy, low bawdy humor, puns, alliterations, anachronisms, songs, verse, verbal hijinks, sentiment balanced by irreverence and artifice balanced by contemporary reference."
Molly (Megan Stern, the only girl in the cast) is motherly like Wendy Darling in the Barrie novel. In the play she's the only child of Lord Aster who, according to the playwright, "is bright, feisty and isolated because she is so special."
"Peter and the Starcatcher" at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles at the Music Center. For tickets call 213-972-4400 or online at CenterTheatreGroup.org. Ends Jan.12, 2014.
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In "The Steward of Christendom" playwright Sebastian Barry recounts the life and times of his great-grandfather Thomas Dunne, the last Catholic head of the Dublin Metropolitan Police before its change in regime in 1922. According to Barry, "He was the man with responsibility for Dublin Castle, the very heart of British rule in Ireland. Yet he was a Countryman…."
It was difficult for Barry to tell his grandfather's troubling story, but he says he overcame his doubts about the man "only when I began to think of him as an old man, and placed him alone in the county (mental) home in Baltinglass, boggy in the head and unpredictable enough to have his grandchildren kept away from him."
The play, set entirely in an Irish county mental home, takes place in 1932 and is told in flashbacks as the old man reflects on his life, family and career as a police officer. Brian Dennehy, who never once leaves the stage, plays Dunne and gives a bravura performance as the lonely, troubled and often despairing man who is haunted by his memories.
Dennehy is given great support by a fine ensemble cast. James Lancaster and Mary Pat Green are members of the institutional staff and Abby Wilde, Kalen Harriman and Carmela Corbett play his three daughters, Annie, Maud and Dolly, respectively. Dylan Saunders, in dual roles, plays a recruit as well as Dunne's son-in-law Matt.
Two young actors, Grant Palmer and Daniel Weinstein, alternate the role of Willie, Dunne's young son who was killed in World War I. The memory of Willie still haunts and whenever the old man thinks of him he envisions him as a youngster in a soldier's uniform.
One of the most touching scenes in the play deals with a letter Willie sent to his father from the trenches shortly before his death. When it is read aloud by Smith, the hostile Catholic caretaker who despises Dunne, the simple yet profound sentiments expressed are enough to bring tears to your eyes because they are filled with so much love for family, father and home.
Each daughter has a distinct personality, and while Thomas loves them all he seems to dote on Dolly, the youngest who breaks his heart when she decides to emigrate to America. Abby Wilde, compelling as his slightly handicapped older daughter, fears she will never marry due to the hump on her back. She is loved by her father, but seems to be appreciated less than the others because she is more serious and practical.
In the end, however, it is she who remains the most loyal and steadfast. She visits him often and brings small gifts in an effort to bring some comfort to him in his personal prison of mental anguish.
"Steward of Christendom" runs through Jan. 5, 2014 at the Mark Taper Forum. Tickets are available online at CenterTheatreGroup.org or by calling 213-628-2772.
