As we were leaving the theater, I said to Bob, "I don't know what we paid for the tickets, but it wasn't enough." What an extravaganza! The stage, the theater itself, seemed too small for this production -- not a criticism. It's just the way it was. Surely they want to go on to bigger things with this -- i.e., Broadway. I'm not qualified to predict, but I do think it would be a smash hit. The story is well known, since this musical is based on the film of the same title, which I have never seen. It dramatizes J.M. Barrie's friendship with the family that was the inspiration for Peter Pan. Four child actors played the parts of the boys of the family. They were brilliant! So were their mother, the leading man, and the guy in the dog suit who played Barrie's St. Bernard, Porthus. The choreography was distinctive, balletic. The humor was effective. The tearjerker moments genuinely jerked tears. The only minus I would give it would be for the songs. There was nothing even close to the level of, say, Where is Love? Melodies and lyrics were all somewhat cliched and predictable. I'm not humming them. Still, I am thinking about the show and its messages. It is important to Believe. Of course, we both glommed onto the time theme represented by the ticking coming from the alarm clock inside crocodile, a grandfather clock in the Barrie household, a clock face that was part of the stage set whose hands sometimes were propelled round and round. Never growing up means never having the clock hands move the hours, days, weeks, years forward. In the end, though, Barrie does grow up, and the children are looking forward to doing the same while remaining forever childlike, but not childish, which is an entirely different thing.
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