Based on the Miramax motion picture by David Magee and the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee, Finding Neverland follows the relationship between playwright J. M. Barrie and the family that inspired Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, one of the most beloved stories of all time.
Final Broadway performance August 21.
Diane Paulus, the show's current director, has kept this musical tale about J. M. Barrie's creation of 'Peter Pan' magnificently low tech...As Barrie's American producer Charles Frohman (and his Captain Hook), Kelsey Grammer far surpasses his stage work in 'La Cage aux Folles.' No one knows how to massage a laugh line better than Grammer, and rightly so, Morrison lets his co-star provide most of the night's humor. The 'Glee' star, on the other hand, keeps it very low-key, giving real heart and enormous grace to Barrie...While Paulus has kept 'Finding Neverland' relatively small, there's still some pandering to modern taste for the overblown, if not the entirely inappropriate...The rousing ensemble numbers by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy could be lifted from a 1950's musical...Overall, however, Weinstein's gamble has paid off. This production may not be total perfection, but it works real magic with its child's play.
Finding Neverland purports to be historical: the true tale of how Barrie, inspired by his dealings with the family of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, created the boy who wouldn't grow up. It also purports to be a singing-dancing family entertainment. It winds up being neither...What's accurate -- perhaps the only thing -- is that Barrie acknowledged the Davies brood as his muses for Peter Pan...On this slender foundation Finding Neverland...builds an enormous superstructure of trite psychology...Finding Neverland demonstrates about as much insight into creativity borne of loss as a Facebook memorial candle. Even if everything in it were profound and true, it would still be a mess, suffering as it does from confusion (or willfulness) about what makes a musical a musical. In good ones, songs are not decorations applied interchangeably to the exterior of a story, like gift-wrap. They are the gift. Here, they seem to be recycled from a different package entirely...More attention has been lavished on the show's tricks than its logic.
| 2015 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2016 | US Tour |
First US National Tour US Tour |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Musical | Matthew Morrison |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Lighting Design | Kenneth Posner |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Orchestrations | Simon Hale |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Scenic Design | Scott Pask |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Score | Gary Barlow |
| 2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Jonathan Deans |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Matthew Morrison |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Carolee Carmello |
| 2015 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Kelsey Grammer |
| 2015 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Matthew Morrison |
| 2015 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Finding Neverland |
Videos