My wife and I had the chance to see the critically acclaimed play Peter and the Starcatcher on the first stop of it's first tour. The Broadway play is an adventure-comedy,that in essence a Peter Pan origin story that is told in a fast past whimsical style.
The play is knowingly presented with la ow-budget feel (i.e. in a scene a ship sinks and a paper ship is torn in half, in a few other scenes a stuffed cat is thrown between characters who meow as they passed, a rope plays essential role in creating place, and scaffolds are often used in a variety of ways).
Yet, like the minimal props and sets, it's the characters and actors who do all the work from start to finish. The cast is all male, with the exception of one central female character. Almost every character is on stage for every minute of the play.
This is not a song and dance type of play, but the way the characters have to be choreographed to keep the play moving, focused, clearly communicated, and create the setting is incredible.
The Peter Pan prequel has some central characters, a brave-can-do-all girl named Molly, her nanny, her father, some orphan boys, a ship captain, ship crew, Smee (the well known Peter Pan character), and a vein spineless pirate named Black Stache.
My wife and I had a fantastic time, I don't think I remember being so consistently entertained through the duration of a performance. And you can't stop paying attention if you want to track with the story, in part because the scene and setting might be changing instantly due to some lighting on a toy ship across the stage, or a characters line reading like narration filling in important gaps.
The play is fun, clean, and while juvenile in it's source material is adult in it's presentation...and not "adult" in the inappropriate sense, but rather the general speed and comedy of the play is probably to fast for a pre-teen to track with, yet for an adult, this pacing is fun and entertaining.
Highly recommended if you get a chance to catch it while touring.
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