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A star turn in a dull Neverland

Source: Globe and Mail
Date: December 1, 2007
Author: Kamal Al-Solaylee
Peter Pan

Directed by Susan H. Schulman

Written by Chris Earle

Starring Kurt Browning, Ross Petty

At the Elgin Theatre in Toronto until Jan. 6 (416-872-5555)

**

The one-step-forward and two-steps-back holiday dance known as the Ross Petty family musical is in full swing with Peter Pan, which opened Thursday at the Elgin Theatre.

In 2005, and through sheer will power, Petty was set to win over anyone who's smarter than a fifth grader to his side with Snow White and the Group of Seven. Then came last year's Aladdin, which arrived in Toronto tattered and torn after a tour in Western Canada. This season's Peter Pan is the snazziest, most expensive looking one of all the Petty musicals, but it's also the dullest and least ribald. Its saving grace is a winning turn from ice-skating champion Kurt Browning in the title role of the boy who wouldn't grow up.

Browning is in good company; Peter Pan is not the only one with developmental issues around here. The new script from Toronto playwright and actor Chris Earle is anemic and starved of all humour. Petty's preferred term for his musicals is "fractured" fairy tales, but this one feels eerily disemboweled. Similarly, American director Susan H. Schulman stunts the script's minor plot developments with elaborate production numbers that derail the show on more than one occasion. Neither writer (whose credits veer toward the socially and politically restless) nor director (a Broadway and Stratford Festival regular) is at home in Petty's conception of Neverland - a land where tacky jokes never go out of fashion.

If five years of reviewing Petty have taught me anything - and I use the word taught loosely, very loosely - it's that the cheesier the shows, the more fun an adult may find them. The emphasis is still on "may" since his productions fall under the "buyer, beware" model. Although there's plenty for the young ones to boo and hiss at in Peter Pan, the adults are left with only a few scraps of comedy. The problem in this instance is that the humour has gone past cheesy and all the way back to milky-white blandness. The pop-culture references are at least contemporary, complete with the statutory bashing of the Maple Leafs and Celine Dion. (Where would Canadian comedy be without these two punching bags, eh?) The musical numbers, however, seem to have been lifted from the play list of an oldies radio station: theme from The Greatest American Hero, Dionne Warwick's Walk on By, the Beach Boys' Wouldn't It Be Nice and Queen's I Want It All.

It's the cast, as always, that does all the heavy lifting of this thin material. While his singing is amplified to distortion, Browning is a surprisingly funny and (not surprisingly) physically agile Peter Pan. There's a real sweetness to him that feeds into the character, and he handles the scripted jokes at his own expense with a distinctly Canadian good nature. The other highlight performance is from the wonderful Eddie Glen as Captain Hook's sidekick Smee. Petty's Captain Hook is almost restrained by the usual mugging and scenery-chewing standards of the role (and of Petty himself). I'm not sure who instructed Jennifer Waiser to play Tinkerbell as an homage to Cyndi Lauper or guided Meghan Hoople to sing in the key of Kelly Clarkson, but neither option is funny or musically original.

Other "modern" touches - which recast the Lost Boys of Neverland as surfer dudes and Latino screaming queens, or Tiger Lilly as a savvy Asian entrepreneur - may revel in the sexual and ethnic diversity of Toronto but, like the bulk of this production, are either pandering, lame or both.