Review Roundup: WENDY & PETER PAN at Barbican Centre

Director Jonathan Munby's production of Wendy & Peter Pan is now playing at Barbican Theatre. This magical retelling of JM Barrie's beloved classic is adapted by Ella Hickson, with set and costumes designed by Colin Richmond and featuring RSC Associate Artist Toby Stephens (Oslo, Hamlet) as the villainous Captain Hook. See what the critics are saying...

Cheryl Markosky, Broadwayworld: There might be one too many fight scenes and some scenes could be trimmed to bring the running time down. And yet, the Royal Shakespeare Company's at its best here, with inventive costumes from Richmond, music by Shuhei Kamimura ranging from soft piano melodies to daring-do adventure tracks, assured stage management from Joni Carter and Oliver Fenwick's candlelit and full-on battle scene lighting. 

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: Despite the pace, it drags. What might, in its original state, have been radical now appears like a soulless stage juggernaut – a mix of big optics Christmas and pantomime. Captain Hook (Toby Stephens) channels pure panto baddie (while philosophising on ageing) and Tink seems like its cockney fairy. When one character emphatically asks, “They’re behind me, aren’t they?” the pantomime is complete.

Sarah Hemming, Financial Times: Daniel Krikler brings instant stage magnetism and physical suppleness to a Peter who is clearly struggling between his desire to stay a child and the unfamiliar sensation of attraction towards Wendy. Colin Richmond’s sumptuous, evocative design and Taiki Ueda’s fluid video work play with the idea that Neverland is a projection of childhood games, a toy ship becoming a full-sized pirate vessel, for example. Lucy Hind gives Peter’s multiple “Shadows” some great, witty choreography and the flying sequences are spectacular. The show itself bubbles with invention but has just a little too much drag to soar to its highest potential.

Liam O'Dell, Liam O'Dell.com: A tad frustrating, but I’m reminded of this show’s family appeal, and so there is a considerable degree of grace which should be given to the moral of the story if there are a couple of inconsistencies, plotholes which aren’t significant enough to diminish the memorable magic the production evokes in audience members – whether they’ve grown up or not.

Tom Ticker, Time Out: But even if the play can’t help but compulsively spell out its points, there’s still fun to be had along the way. The fight scenes are great and the actors inhabiting the Lost Boys enjoyably spoof childishly mangled versions of masculinity. Daniel Krikler impresses as Peter, a tangle of loose-limbed bluster. Meanwhile, as Captain Hook (and Mr Darling), Toby Stephens eats most of the scenery before the crocodile gets round to eating him.