Theatre | Family favourite all set to soar
HUNTER Drama's production of the musical Peter Pan JR will certainly be a high-flying event when it is staged at Newcastle's Civic Theatre from October 10 to 12.
The story centres on the title character, Peter Pan, a boy who never grew up and lives in Neverland, a fairy-tale-style region where he looks after the Lost Boys, a group who don't have a care in the world, and encounters the strong and kind Brave Girls, as well as inept pirates led by Captain Hook, and a ticking crocodile who pursues everyone who crosses its path.
Peter, who is an adept flyer, often heads into the real world to observe those who live there, and is attracted to Wendy Darling, the eldest of the three children of the upmarket London couple Mr and Mrs Darling.
Wendy and her brothers, John and Michael, aren't happy in their home lives, and Peter offers to let them fly with him to Neverland.
Peter's mischievous fairy sidekick, Tinker Bell, sprinkles them with pixie dust, and they fly through a window and across the sky.
Having actors look as if they are really flying has been challenging for theatre companies, with many seen swinging with curtain-like material hung from the ceiling visibly wrapped around their waists.
Hunter Drama's Peter Pan JR, however, will make the flying look very real, and, as four of the seven scenes in the show include flying, that will make it more engaging for audiences.
Imogen Bamback, 14, who plays Peter Pan, notes that her character and others have to fly up and down and sideways.
James Tolhurst, the show's director, said that the staging team had decided to take the actors playing the flying characters to Melbourne in early September to train for the flying scenes at Showtech, a company that has been producing flying effects and stage automation for more than 27 years.
... four people are flying at the same time, something not usually seen in theatre.
In the day's training, the actors - Sabine Cook (Wendy), Jasper Coy (John), Jack Norman (Michael), and Imogen Bamback - were fitted with the under-costume harnesses they will wear during the show and worked by the tutors through each of the flying sequences.
The Showtech team developed every element of the flying scenes, and programmed them into a computer system.
Two Showtech technicians will work backstage during the rehearsals and performances at the Civic.
James Tolhurst notes that four people are flying at the same time, something not usually seen in theatre.
While some people might wonder why a girl is playing Peter Pan in the musical, it has invariably been played by a female since the stage musical was adapted in 1954 from a popular Disney animated film version of the 1904 J.M. Barrie play Peter Pan that he based on characters he had included in an adult novel.
Mary Martin, the first onstage musical Peter Pan, won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway premiere.
Imogen Bamback sees Peter as "very cheeky and a little boy in every sense of the word".
Luke Barker, who plays Captain Hook, notes that he is the show's comedic relief, "very flamboyant and over the top", while Sabine Cook points to Wendy as being "a bit of a paradox" because she becomes the mother of 15 kids when she arrives in Neverland and finds herself recalling that she adores and idolises her mother.
Peter Pan JR has a cast of 56 young Newcastle and Hunter musical theatre performers aged eight to 18, all wearing a colourful range of very different costumes.
It has performances at the Civic Theatre on Thursday, October 10, and Friday, October 11, at 10.30am and 7pm, and on Saturday, October 12, at 2pm and 7pm.
While tickets are formally $56 A Reserve and $49 B Reserve, Herald readers can purchase their tickets at the special price of $40 by contacting Civic Ticketek, 4929 1977, and quoting the code: HOOK40.
Theatre Review
Thoroughly Modern Millie JR
Young People's Theatre Newcastle, at YPT Theatre, Hamilton. Ends November 2.
YPT trainer Chelsea Willis put the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie JRforward as a show the company should stage because it would give students in their teens the chance to develop their skills and give audience members a bright time while watching it.
And that is certainly the case, with the alternating two casts having watchers laughing and applauding loudly during the first two shows.
The work is a lively 70-minute adaptation for young performers of a musical that has the title character coming to New York in 1922 with the aim of getting a job that will help her to marry a wealthy man.
There is a good mix of songs from the 1920s and new numbers, and very engaging routines.
The song, The Speed Test, for example, delivered when Millie is being interviewed for a job, has the office female stenographers tapping their feet in time with the music as they type at their desks.
And when two Chinese brothers, who work at a hotel for would-be actresses, deliver spoken words and lyrics in Chinese, they and other cast members engagingly hold up items, such as a large metal plate, that have sheets of paper with English translations of the words attached to them, with watchers smiling and laughing.
The characters are certainly a colourful mix, with the sinister woman who runs the hotel always clad in black military-style garb and Millie in eye-catching red dresses.