Review: PETER PAN National Tour Presented by Broadway In Chicago

J. M. Barrie's beloved 1904 play Peter Pan refers to the Native Americans who inhabit the forests and coves of Neverland as "piccaninny warriors," and this is honestly one of the work's least offensive descriptions of the tribe. But these warriors, including the requisite damsel in distress Tiger Lily, delighted early audiences so much and functioned as such an integral plot device that later adaptations of the classic story did little to correct these harmful caricatures. One of these versions of the Peter Pan story was a 1954 musical of the same name. With a creative team that included director Jerome Robbins and composer Jule Styne, PETER PAN played to sold-out audiences for sixteen weeks before going on a national tour and receiving a televised production on NBC. This version featured actress Mary Martin as the titular boy who never grew up, a casting choice that has remained the standard ever since. Most recently, in 2014, the musical received another live NBC broadcast starring Allison Williams as Pan and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook. This new, somewhat more sensitive take on the story attempted to smooth over some of the original material's racist depictions of Native Americans, replacing the lyrically baffling and horribly offensive "peace pipe" song, "Ugg-a-Wugg."

Now, Native playwright Larissa FastHorse and lyricist Amanda Green, daughter of original lyricist Adolph Green, have reworked the musical yet again to further correct harmful stereotypes and update the story for modern sensibilities. This newest adaptation of PETER PAN, now touring throughout the United States, unquestionably corrects injustices that never should have been committed in the first place. But by flying Peter so enthusiastically into 2024, the creative team has stripped him and his story of some of their magic, making the boy who wouldn't grow up more out of touch than out of time. The musical plays at Chicago's James M. Nederlander Theatre through April 7.

FastHorse made history last year with her satire THE THANKSGIVING PLAY, becoming the first Native playwright to have a work produced on Broadway. Soon after, producers announced that she would be reworking the book of PETER PAN for its impending national tour. In interviews, FastHorse said that she wanted to move the story's opening and closing scenes from Victorian London to contemporary America so that "every child in this nation [can] look out their window... and believe Peter can fly by." The geographic transposition of the story makes a certain amount of sense; our current image of Peter Pan is as much an American invention as it is an English one. But references to cultural trends in the 2020s make the musical already feel painfully dated. Like the original musical, FastHorse's script begins with Wendy Darling (Hawa Kamara) and her younger brother John (William Foon and Micah Turner Lee, alternately) waltzing in their bedroom. The difference, though, is that Wendy hopes that the video of the siblings' dance challenge will go viral on social media and earn her enough money to go to medical school (Wendy's age is never specified, but these details suggest she is either 12 or 22 years old). While viral dance challenges were all the rage several years ago, they've since fallen out of fashion, illustrating the dangers of using passing trends to appeal to audiences whose tastes rapidly shift in the age of smartphones and Snapchat.

More importantly, though, FastHorse has found a way to incorporate indigenous tribes into Peter's story without turning them into caricatures or merely smoothing over the material's rough edges. Now, Tiger Lily (Raye Zaragoza) and her companions represent indigenous cultures not just from the Americas but from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe too. Forced out of their ancestral homelands, these warriors have come to Neverland to preserve their cultures until they can finally return home. It's a relatively simple yet thoughtful change that justifies the tribes' presence on the island without ignoring the imperialism that forced them there in the first place. However, these changes introduce ideas that never feel fully fleshed out, solving one problem while introducing several others. References to the injustices these populations faced are ultimately fleeting, as though their backstory had to be shoehorned into a show that has to keep the attention of thousands of kids who might prefer to be watching their iPads.

The rest of the show's creative elements and performers work admirably to capture the imaginations of such children. As Peter, Nolan Almeida makes the most of his natural charisma, beaming a smile that can be seen in the back of the balcony while embodying the fluid physicality of a young boy. Almeida's vocal quality has a contemporary pop sound, making nearly 70-year-old songs feel surprisingly fresh. The flip side of this talent is that his line delivery occasionally takes on the singsong lilt of a TikTok influencer or a California skater. 

Peter Pan is nothing without Captain Hook, though, and Cody Garcia plays the part with such effortless humor and sublime talent that they become the rare villain you love to love rather than love to hate. Garcia displays a stunning vocal range that flies from a low growl to a heavenly falsetto in the span of a few notes, and their tall frame makes Hook's physicality all the more imposing and comical, especially alongside Kurt Perry's bumbling first mate Smee. Watching their performance, one wishes that Garcia could be seen in a role that provides them with greater depth and freedom to showcase the full extent of their talents.

With the expanded book and added lyrics, Wendy and Tiger Lily have become somewhat more complex characters, though there's room for further depth and development. FastHorse includes a scene between the two that makes PETER PAN score higher on the Bechdel Test than before, but the fact that the women only ever talk about Peter prevents it from earning a passing grade. All the same, Kamara and Zaragoza have pleasing voices capable of expressing power and emotion. Zaragoza is actually an accomplished folk singer, and it feels like a missed opportunity that these talents weren't put to better use. In fact, given the cast and creative team that director Lonny Price has assembled, I wondered more than once what the product might have been if they had been allowed to create a PETER PAN musical from scratch without any obligations to the previous iterations.

After all, Price and his designers have proven themselves more than capable of capturing the magic of Barrie's story, using practical effects and projections in ways that would have been unimaginable in 1954. I dare anyone not to feel a sense of wonder as Peter takes flight into the Darlings' bedroom for the first time, sprinkling pixie dust across the floor and audience (the largely enchanting flight choreography is by Paul Rubin). In one of the show's most delightful moments, Peter has an extended dance/fight sequence with his own shadow projected against the wall, the two of them bouncing across the room as shelves collapse and picture frames spin. This kind of playful, thoughtful stagecraft makes you want to see how technology pushes theater into fascinating new realms of design. David Bengali's projections are beautifully rendered and thankfully lack the artificiality that plagues so many other projection-heavy productions. My only qualm came late in the show when the moon over the pirate ship suddenly grows large across the screen and joins in a song praising Captain Hook's villainy. Not only does this cheesy bit happen twice within roughly ten minutes, but it raises horrifying questions about the Lovecraftian celestial beings that inhabit the heavens over Neverland and encourage the bloodlust of the humans below. But the children in the audience didn't seem to mind.

And perhaps this is ultimately the sign of success for any production of PETER PAN, regardless of how often adults may roll their eyes or debate the merits of a new script. Kids throughout the auditorium began clapping to bring Tinker Bell back to life before Peter could ask twice, and one particularly bold boy sitting behind me booed Hook at every opportunity he could. This new, revamped PETER PAN may not necessarily be for the whole family, and I'm open to the idea that perhaps it shouldn't be. After all, Wendy and others lose their ability to fly as soon as they grow into adulthood. But one wishes that this production had found a way to allow us to share in that childhood wonder for just a little longer.

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