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terrific experience; great show that we highly recommend Review by: jg in nj, Feb 27, 2011 |
what a great show. i went knowing very little about it, thinking in a general way it was targeted for very small kids. i knew it had something to do with peter pan, and rather thought it was a kind of cathy rigby update. i also knew that disney had something to do with it, and that colored (not unfavorably) my expectation. but it was with the feeling that this would be a mild afternoon's entertainment mainly for the benefit of our kids ... read more that my wife and i took our two daughters (16 and 11) to the show this afternoon.
the show was nothing like what i expected. like all the best family fare, from looney tunes on down, it operates on several levels. many of the jokes are aimed at the adults in the crowd, but at the same time there is plenty of spectacle and humor for kids of every age. certainly the four of us all loved it.
the basic premise of the show it is that it is a prequel to peter pan, and tells the story that leads up to the situation that exists when the james barrie play begins. it starts with a bang, and never lets up. that can be confusing at first, but trust me: even the youngest kids will pick up the thread quickly enough, and get into the spirit of the action.
the cast is uniformly excellent; if you thought you'd seen several of them on broadway or tv before, you'd be right. the leads are particularly great, especially the scenery-chewing performance of christian borle as "black stache". borle's rolling eyes, preposterous grease-paint moustache, and manic performance are strongly reminiscent of groucho, while his vocal mannerisms and arch delivery hint at tim curry. But that description does him an injustice, and makes him sound derivative; he brings his own personality to the character he creates, a very campy one, and it's hilarious.
if you enjoy wordplay, and lots of it, then the script will delight you. i do, and it did. the jokes run by so quickly that i can pretty much guarantee that you won't hear them all, and that several times you'll be laughing at something that happened 10 seconds earlier but took that long to penetrate your consciousness.
the theater, which was a new one to us, is quite small. we happened to be in the front row (which we loved), but i can't imagine any of the seats being bad. the tilt of the seating area is sharp enough that i suspect it unlikely that anyone sitting in front of you would block your view. and i doubt if anyone in the house is very far from the stage.
the "effects" are innovative and clearly and deliberately simplistic in a way that generates a lot of laughs and adds to the overall humor of the show. many are cheesy in a calculated (but imaginative) way that we all got a kick out of.
as for the music, i had thought, for no particular reason, that this was a full fledged musical. it does have several numbers, five or so i think; they are all enjoyable, and a few are terrific, especially the opener to the second act. but i would call it a fast paced comic show with a handful of songs in it, rather than a musical per se.
this all probably makes it sound like i'm paid to promote the show. i'm not, just still high off the feeling you get from a great live theater experience, made all the better by the show's so vastly exceeding my admittedly moderate expectations. i would strongly recommend the show to anyone with the least taste for something quirky, creative, and fast paced. on the other hand if you're looking for tragedy, melodrama, or much in the way of emotional heft, you might want to look elsewhere.
by the way, it's probably a bit longer than you might think; today's performance ran 2 1/2 hours with one 15 minutes intermission. |
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My recommendation:
must see!
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I saw this show with:
Family
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Recommended for:
The Entire Family, Tourists, Adults
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