Hi! It’s Annie!
So, I wasn’t able to get tickets to K-Con this year. And honestly, I didn’t go last year either because I usually save my money for actual artist tours rather than going to K-Con. But this year I was at least hoping for some kind of ATEEZ event and I wasn’t able to get into any. (It also wasn’t advisable to go to K-Con on Sunday because of a freaking hurricane in California of all things. And KQ is overworking ATEEZ so much that Jongho had to be rushed back to South Korea. I am more than a little angry.) Luckily, my sorrow about this was lessened a little by the fact that Mischief decided to come all the way out to LA from the West End with my favorite production, ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and I was able to see it on Saturday. I’ve actually done a previous post about ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and if you told me back when I wrote that post that I would eventually see the original cast perform it live, I would have thought you were crazy. The cast is entirely British and I have absolutely seen their original production, ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ on tour, but it was a touring cast. When I first heard that ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ was coming, I thought it would be a touring cast too but was still more than happy to see it. I watch the BBC version of it often when I’m having a bad day and need a laugh. I didn’t realize it was the original touring cast until after I had already made plans to see it and I was absolutely shocked. I think I almost cried because I am an emotional bean. And now that I’ve seen it, I can say that seeing it live is so much better. MAJOR SPOILERS for if you want to watch the BBC version or are going to catch this before it leaves LA! If you can’t see it in LA, I highly recommend watching the BBC version (which is free on Youtube) in general and before moving on with this review. I’m just going to get into it!
Summary: The Cornley Polytechnic Theatre Society is a usually poor theatre group that has done several unsuccessful productions. The cast consists of Chris, the snobby control-freak Director and Captain Hook/Mr. Darling. Robert, a vain self-important actor who swears he is the Co-Director and plays Starkey/Peter’s Shadow/Nana/Tree. Jonathan, a slightly creepy actor who sleeps around and plays Peter Pan. Sandra, an over actor who thinks she’s a great actress and plays Wendy. Dennis, a very dumb actor who can’t remember his lines and plays John/Smee. Max, a childish actor with a crush on Sandra who plays Michael/the Crocodile. (He’s only cast because of a rich family member that donated a lot of money.) Nancy, an energetic yet exhausted former techie who plays Mrs. Darling/Lisa/Curly/Tinkerbell. Lucy, the niece of Robert with stage fright who plays Tootles. And others which includes Trevor, the very Scottish and not-into-it Stage Manager and the Narrator who changes depending on the show. This time it was Bradley Whitford who laments having to do this despite his Emmys and apparently took the job because of the current strike. This motley crew of characters are notoriously bad at shows and the audience watches as everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.
The Actors:
I think it makes sense to point out that the original cast of this show are the original cast for Mischief in general. These characters have been played largely by these people and have also been added to over the years by these same people. At the showing that we went to, we didn’t actually see a few of the actors. Henry Shields was out as Chris, so instead we got Harry Kershaw, who was an amazing and hilarious Chris. We also saw Brennan Stacker as Lucy rather than Ellie Morris. She was also just as amazing as I could have imagined. I was really worried that we wouldn’t be able to see Jonathan Sayer, who may just be my favorite member of the original cast, but I’m not sure I could say that since I love them all so much. Jonathan Sayer was busy for the first half of this run and we managed to catch him right as he came back. I really really wanted to see him as Dennis. I don’t think anyone expects the main creator of Mischief to cast himself as the dumb actor and it was really funny to see him address the audience at the end of the show as the creator after seeing him play Dennis for two hours. Dave Hearn was unfortunately not there as Max but Matthew Cavendish has been playing Max in theatre productions for a while as well. I also especially loved seeing Henry Lewis as Robert. Nobody does the larger than life personality and very distinct “Woof!” bits as well as he does them. Nancy was amazing live! I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone multi-task like that on stage. But overall I loved seeing everyone. We actually saw Chris Leask who plays Trevor outside the venue before the production. The Scottish accent made me laugh every time. We even got to see a talk back with Charlie, Nancy, Matthew, and Brennan at the very end where they demonstrated safe screams and talked about feeling safe on stage. It really felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these amazing actors from the West End!
The Unexpected:
The BBC version of ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ is about an hour and the live version is about two, which means there are quite a few things in the live version I hadn’t seen. Which was great, because I laughed doubly as hard at the comedy I wasn’t expecting. The most shocking moment for me was probably when a stage light fell onto the stage. It made a really loud noise and I think the entire audience gasped. Trevor as Peter Pan lasted a good deal longer live than in the BBC version, which I really liked. For me, Trevor becoming Peter Pan is one of my favorite parts of the BBC version and I loved hearing him do more of the lines. There was so much more of him hanging upside down in this version though and I have no idea how he could stand it! Harry Kershaw as Chris set up this incredible moment to make a little girl in the audience help him murder Peter Pan which was such a funny moment. Another moment that I loved was after Sandra finds Jonathan and Nancy kissing. In the BBC version she slaps Jonathan and then gets into a bit of a fight with Nancy. In this version Sandra slaps Jonathan and then talks with Nancy, they check on each other, and then they team up to slam Jonathan’s head into a table. This change was suggested by Charlie and Nancy who didn’t think that the women would fight each other when they had both been wronged by the guy in this situation. Both my sister and I cheered very loudly when this happened and I’m sure we startled people around us. I don’t care. It was a great moment! Bradley Whitford added his own flavor to the show by adding in anecdotes about the strike which thankfully was met with a lot of approval from the audience I was a part of. He also did this hilarious gorilla bit that he had only premiered the night before. I didn’t realize that Daniel Dae Kim was going to take over the role of Narrator next and I’m almost sad I didn’t get to see him, though Bradley Whitford was hilarious! I’m curious to see what the difference between the Narrators will be. But Bradley Whitford seemed to be a perfect match for this production with his comedy style. There was also a whole bit with mermaids on roller skates and a horrible under-sea scene that had me laughing so hard. And Dennis’s lines were eventually taken over by the husband of the person originally feeding him lines after an impressive fight that Dennis repeats to the audience word for word. It was an amazing scene where they managed to make the audience feel for characters that weren’t even on stage. I did miss a few of the TV jokes, like Chris falling off the row boat in the public pool before suddenly appearing on stage. But all the new jokes more than made up for it!
The Iconic:
I don’t think many things in ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ get more iconic than “Not you Dennis, walk away!”. Seeing Dennis center stage for that and hearing the uproarious laughter afterwards made the moment that much better. Robert was a hilarious presence and the almost incoherent pirate argument between Dennis and Robert remains one of my favorite parts. It felt like every joke just hit even harder live and I couldn’t stop laughing. Or in this case it was more like wheezing. But despite the fact that the characters aren’t created to be completely likable, you end up rooting for them anyways. You get involved in Sandra’s odd love triangle and celebrate when Trevor miraculously catches Lucy who’s being projectiled across the stage. The storylines that happen backstage are just as important and just as iconic as the comedy that happens onstage, which is what makes this come together to be such a great piece of theatre. It’s not just comedy, it’s characters too! The entire idea for this is brilliant!
I absolutely needed this laugh between the hurricane coming, being a little let down by K-Con, and starting a new job that I’m nervous about. And Mischief never fails in making sure I laugh. Very hard. I’m still so shocked that I could see this cast and I’m not going to forget this any time soon! If you’re in the LA area, go catch this amazing show before it leaves! Just wait until the weather gets a little better. I hope everyone stayed safe and continues to stay safe!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 