“One of the reasons I wanted to do this is that it would be kids' first experience in the theater. And I wanted them to not only love 'Peter Pan,' but to love theater.” “We wanted people to come to the theater.'' “We're back,'' says director Ronnie Price.
The show is based on the 1954 musical version starring Broadway legend Mary Martin, with music by Morris Charlap, additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Jule Styne. added music.
Playwright Larissa Fasthorse, who made Broadway history in 2023 with the satirical comedy “Thanksgiving Play,” has been selected to rewrite the story. She said that Peter Pan's characters were complex, the pirates were interesting, and the music was appealing, but that she was appalled by the depiction of indigenous people and women.
Previous versions had references to “Redskins” throughout, a dance number with awkward gibberish lyrics called “Ag-A-Ug,” and Tiger Lily who attacked Randy Brave and others with a “machete.” ” It was described as repelling the enemy.
“My goal in doing this was to do no harm,” FastHorse says. “Because the music is so beautiful. The story is complex and beautiful. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it does all of those things, and it has so much magic.”
The tour begins this week in Maryland and will visit North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, Washington, D.C., South Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, California, Missouri, Texas and Georgia.
“Ugg-A-Wugg” was cut and replaced with the melody from the little-known 1961 Comden Greene Stein musical “Subways Are for Sleeping,” starring Adolph Green's Tony Award-winning Amanda -Fused with new lyrics by Green. Nominated daughter.
Price also discovered that there was a “haunting and beautiful” song in the original creator's paper called “I Went Home.” The song is about Peter coming home to find the windows barred and another child sleeping in his bed. Martin asked for it to be cut before the premiere, fearing it would be too sad. Price reverted, arguing that audiences these days are more mature.
“I think kids might be a little upset right now,” he says. “I don't think it's upsetting. I think it's working. I think it's all very moving pieces. I don't think anyone has heard that song since 1954.” There's a reprise of “I Won't Grow Up” at the start, called “We Hate That Kinds,” and the pirates sing it with Green's lyrics.
FastHorse expanded the concept of indigenous people in the musical Neverland to include people from indigenous cultures under pressure from around the world, including Africa, Japan, and Eastern Europe. On the way home. Price praised this as an “elegant solution” and added that FastHorse “was just the perfect writer for us.”
FastHorse was the first Indigenous artist in history to revise this narrative, and he did more than revise the perception of Indigenous culture. She also deepened the female characters. Tiger Lily and Wendy both sing, dance, fight, and talk to each other without Peter.
The FastHorse and Price version is set in modern-day middle-class America rather than Victorian England. The cast includes children of various races and ethnicities.
“We want every child in this country to look out the window on a national tour and believe that Peter can fly out the window,” Fasthorse says. “The cast looks American.”
Price said that despite the changes, the structure of the show has been maintained, especially the beautiful language taken from James M. Barrie's classic story, such as the concept that the birth of fairies comes from a child's first laugh. He emphasized.
“Peter Pan” is a durable medium by any measure, with five major Broadway revivals, countless tours, NBC's “Peter Pan Live” in 2015 with Allison Williams, and an animated film. These include the series “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” and the Broadway show “Peter Pan.” Goes Wrong, Peter and the Starcatcher, and the 2023 live-action film Peter Pan and Wendy, which added a girl to the Lost Boys and cast a black actor in the role of Tinker Bell.
Price says the appeal of Barry's work is generational and based on very human notions of ambivalence about freedom, motherhood, innocence and growing up.
“Kids are afraid of growing up. Some of them really want to grow up quickly. I think all adults have this contradictory relationship with growing up. So I think this is also a meditation on that and death,” Price says. “If you look at all the themes in this work, they are very fundamental to all of us.”
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