J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan has seen its share of adaptations. It started off in 1904 as a play that opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London, and later became written down as a novel in 1911. Peter Pan has also took to the silver screen, with creative re-interpretations that range from the well-known Disney film to the vampire teens of The Lost Boys to the sequel Hook starring Robin Williams. Under the dual pens of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter Pan has spun off into a YA book series of prequels. Now, Peter and the Starcatcher, the first in that series, makes its premiere on Broadway this week at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Before Peter became “the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up,” he was just “The Boy,” a scraggly British orphan on his way to be sold into slavery in a foreign land. That is, until he encounters a mysterious trunk and a more mysterious girl on a mission from Queen Victoria.
I admit to not having read the books before seeing the show, but Peter and the Starcatcher was an innovative, high-energy production that at least made great use of Dave Barry’s referential humorous style and the other Barrie’s wondrous original material.
[Clap twice if you believe in entertaining theater]