"Peter and the Starcatcher"

June 15, 2016 — Based on a novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, adapted for the stage by Rick Elise with music by Wayne Barker, this play is a prequel to the familiar Peter Pan story by Sir James M. Barrie. You'd be excused for thinking it's a children's play, but it's for all ages. Yes, children will enjoy it, but the grown-ups will pick up on the subtle adult themes, double entendres, puns and raucous Monty Pythonesque humor. All will be delighted by the frenetic energy of the play.

A highlight of the show for me was a wild song and dance number at the beginning of Act 2 featuring the lone female member of the cast and ten males in drag. The audience went wild. In fact, the audience was captivated by the play in a way I haven't seen in a long time

Directed by Neil Pankhurst for the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in Meredith, New Hampshire, with music directed and played on the electric keyboard  by Judy Hayward, choreography by Lisa Travis, set design by David Towlun and costume design by Daneé Rose Grillo, the play imagines events before the Peter Pan story we all know. We learn how a nameless boy orphan became Peter, about his relationship with Molly, the starcatcher of the title, and how a pirate captain lost his hand (it wasn't they way J. M. Barrie told it).

Katrina Michaels is Molly, the only female in the eleven-member cast as I mentioned before, although Charles Baran plays two female parts. Will Champion is the boy who became Peter, and Nicholas Wilder is perfectly cast as the pirate captain, Black Stache. We learn how he became known as Captain Hook near the end of the play. Wilder is a master of deliberately campy over-acting. He reminds me of performers of the old Monty Python's Flying Circus. He provided the biggest laughs of the show, which had many of them. The entire cast was excellent, and this first-night performance went off without a hitch.