Remember when you believed in magic? Can you keep a secret? Yes? Well listen closely because… it still exists. At the Orpheum Theater through March 16, magic still exists. Peter and the Starcatcher is the show for the inner child that is still somewhere inside every one of us. It is the adventurous and enchanting story of Peter Pan before he had a name and before he could fly. It is a story filled with magic, pirates, mysterious trunks, shipwrecks, and razzel-dazzle mermaids. Come to see this show to laugh so hard you risk seriously displacing your diaphragm, come see this show to suspend your disbelief and give your self a much-needed dose of imagination, come see this show to remember how to fly.
Peter and the Starcatcher is a story based off of a children’s book (a book I highly recommend to anyone of any age) and that sense of storytelling and the sense of being lost in a good book is carried out spectacularly by the cast. The cast brings this story to life through their physicality. The show had rather minimalistic set pieces and props, instead the actors were used as scenery and props and actors told the story as much though their bodies as they did though their dialogue. The show felt fresh because of this, the humor and physical storytelling gave the show an improvised effect and an ensemble feeling though out the entire show. The show always felt alive, like it was living and breathing. As an audience member I felt activity a part of the show, completely undistracted and engaged, regardless my distance from the stage and the amount of people chewing caramel corn around me. Despite the cast’s strength at an ensemble effect, there was one real shinning star of this production. However, he was not Peter Pan, but John Sanders, who played the pirate Black Stash. If nothing else about the show intrigues you, come just to see this swashbuckler villain steal the show, in the most flamboyant and hilariously sidesplitting ways. Anyone with respiratory concerns should be warned that they might laugh so hard that oxygen may be inaccessible for as long five minutes.
As you can imagine, this show is not meant to be taken too seriously. My only critique is that at times, some of the gags seemed unnecessary at times, especially the few sexual references seemed a bit out of place in a show that had such a childlike quality. Overall, the show felt balanced, and never boring. The story often moved at a chaotic pace, like a kid who has eaten too much birthday cake, but even these moments of hyperactivity were still nicely dispersed with longer ones that gave the show depth and focus on a few outrageously funny scenes.
This show will make you smile, it will make you laugh, you may even cry. But, come to this show to reunite yourself with your inner child, come to this show to hear a story, come to this show so you don’t have to grow up. If you have ever dreamed up flying, come to this show.
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