| ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ Review |
| Written by Kevin Filipski | |||
| Friday, 11 March 2011 02:25 | |||
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Peter and the Starcatcher A play by Rick Elise Based on a book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson Directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers Starring Adam Chanler-Berat, Christian Borle, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Teddy Bergman, Arnie Burton, Matt D'Amico, Brandon Dirden, Carson Elrod, Kevin Del Aguila, Greg Hildreth, Karl Kenzler, David Rossmer Performances through April 3, 2011 New York Theater Workshop 79 East 4th Street Peter and the Starcatcher is too much of a not-so-good thing. This Peter Pan prequel wants so desperately to please that it ends up like an overly friendly mutt that keeps trying to lick your face after you’ve pushed it away. You want to shout, “Enough!” The story—young Molly, future mother of Wendy, befriends a pre-flying Peter as they battle the menacing pirate Black Stash, soon to become Captain Hook, and his nasty sidekick Smee—has enough skeleton on which to hang a diverting stage tale, but this version starts petering out in the first act. Even so, it’s dragged out to an exhausting 2-1/2 hours in length, including what seems like no fewer than a dozen false endings. Instead of a tolerably amusing hour-long one-acter, the creative team goes in the opposite direction, piling on annoying cutesiness like horrible puns, rhymes and scenes of vomiting and farting ad nauseum, even adding tired jokes that reference Sarah Plain, Starbucks and Napoleon’s shortness of stature. Also peppered throughout are with-it terms like “snap,” “yo,” “dope” and even “badass.” I’m amazed that a Twitter or Facebook line wasn’t shoehorned in for good measure. The game cast of a dozen does what it can in a variety of roles, but Christian Borle (Black Stash) overplays so much, flirting with outright campiness, that he becomes tiresome very quickly. (I must add that the audience didn’t share my view, rolling on the floor laughing and leaping to its collective feet at the end for the requisite standing ovation.) A few scattered ingenious sight gags include one involving a bird flying around Peter upon reaching Neverland and an amusingly gigantic alligator, but as with so much of Peter and the Starcatcher, a lot less would have gone a very long way. By overstuffing itself with cutesy camp, the play undercuts the very real and poignant story of friendship that’s at its heart—a heart whose beat is difficult to discern under all the overdone clutter. Caption: The cast of Peter and the Starcatcher Photo by Joan Marcus For more Times Square articles like ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ Review please visit the Theater Reviews Section of TimesSquare.com
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