BWW Preview: Adventure Soars at First Stage's JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH

Looking for adventure--A fairy tale, fantasy and a tale about finding family? The classic children's story Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach returns to First Stage under the clever direction of Matt Daniels--a well-known name in Milwaukee. His talents extend to acting, directing and teaching theater academy classes to name only a few and this week he focuses on opening the Theatre for Young Audeince (TYA) production on October 16 in the Todd Wehr Theatre.

The fantasy children's novel first published in 1961, British author Dahl's story of the orphan James Henry imagines that magic grows a gigantic peach inhabited by giant insects who welcome the little boy inside the flavorful fruit. Eventually, after a series of events, the peach soars over the Atlantic Ocean from England to New York, where James finds a new life. A surreal story appreciated by adults and children, this production stars as a musical ithis October instead of a play that First Stage originally produced to open their 1999-2000 season.

Fifteen years later, Daniels relates in an interview at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center this musical features the talents of Timothy Allen McDonald, who wrote the book, complemented by lyricists and composers Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, when he describes them as, "up and comers in New York's musical theater."

The 47 musical elements combine with ten original songs in this production and will be well served by Paul Helm, the musical director. Daniels explains, "This becomes a play within a play where the actors sing to the audience before the story begins 'this [the story] will happen right before their eyes'. We use a combination of ballads, Broadway style songs, jazz and vaudeville--a big range of styles where the harmonies are interesting and tight."

"The lush, beautiful production also features puppets designed by Brandon Kirkham," Daniels continues. "First, toys creating shadow puppetry on an illuminated screen show the audience the tiny insects [found inside the peach] before they magically grow to giant, human size, exactly like the peach. The actors that play the human size insects are also the puppeteers of these puppets. In the show, we play with light and shadow in the puppets just like Dahl's writing deals with the darkness in the world lit by tiny rays of light."

Dahl's novels and stories speak to the sorrow, a darker side of childhood, and in this story, a boy who confronts the death of his parents and then lives with his two aunts who mistreat him. While Dahl wrote James Henry as a four year old child, the subsequent movie and this First Stage production grow him to a young boy between seven and ten. Two First Stage actors Luke Brotherhood and Nolan Van Haren play the orphan James, and Daniels says, "They're incredible. These actors need to capture 'a gamut' of emotions in James, who transforms over the course of the 90-minute TYA production from a discouraged British orphan to a jubilant New York boy."

Daniel describes the character with the words 'heroic, kind and caring' even when under the dire circumstance of his childhood, a boy who then experiences this incredible adventure. In the past several seasons, First Stage has produced Broadway level shows to delight every age audience. Roald Dahl's timeless James and the Giant Peach follows that mission---to perform classic stories with adventure, entertainment value and filled with heartwarming emotion that invests in a child's appreciation for their unique place in humanity, the world they inhabit. Theater where as Daniels believes, "the audience becomes the final character."

Why does Daniels revel in directing Dahl's James and the Giant Peach? His astute answer:"There's a hard emotional core at the center of this spectacle.... A play that allows everyone to find something new each time they return to the story."

"It's a great adventrue about a little light at the center of all this darkness. How a light shines the way to find a family.. A story to find your way in the world through courage and an open heart to then know the people you were meant to be with."

Daniels returns Roald Dahl's surreal adventure to First Stage on October 16 in the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Return to find those rays of light in the darkness of today's world at the theater. For performance schedule and information, please visit: www.firststage.org

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