BWW Reviews: PETER AND THE STARCATCHER National Tour - Peter and the Star Vehicle

Origin stories get a headstart. An audience follows deeper a familiar character. Clever, new exposition regarding established plot points is engaging and often delightful. Origin stories can be the flashback episode of a water cooler weekly serial. They can be the other side of a story like WICKED. They can be the how did the super hero discover their super-powers story or a combination of all three like PETER AND THE STARCATCHER. The show, based on Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's book of similar name, calls itself "a Grownup's Prequel to Peter Pan". And in it, the devices of the origin story meet a play already propelled by a talented staging, hilarious incongruity, and impressive performances. The National Tour visits Tempe's Gammage Auditorium January 14th through 19th.

A traditional staging of PETER AND THE STARCATCHER would be excess beyond taste. Directors Roger Rees and Alex Timbers have prepared instead an imagination exercise. Their show takes the leash off of vigorous comedic abstractionists (my term for scenery chewers) and allows them to drive the evening's entertainment. Besides the necessary scenery chewing, the cast diligently coordinates intricate blocking to the inch and to the second. Their uncanny success at balancing these two opposite forms of stage occupancy fascinates and is likely responsible for the production's success.

The show is a star vehicle for any actor cast as Black Stache. Played masterfully in the national tour by John Sanders, the role is a comic obstacle course. It begs continual, athletic demonstrations of prowess in all means of humor and allows the brilliant a proving ground for their skills. Mr. Sanders takes full advantage of the opportunity. His vocal ability and timing made all the more impressive by marathon-like scene conditions. And his 11 o'clock "Oh, my God" aria climaxes the entire piece.

Shows like last season's WARHORSE and now PETER AND THE STARCATCHER are winning Gammage subscribers over to the idea that theatrical convention is as delightful as visual spectacle. And while they can't build a season around these creative gems, peppering them around raises the audience savvy and promotes the advantages of the intimacy of live theater, even in that massive auditorium. It is even simply refreshing to see shows that drive an art form receiving production values and marketing support usually reserved for far more commercial theater.

Find the National Tour at http://peterandthestarcatcher.com/tour/dates/

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