“Peter Pan,” the nearly 70-year-old Broadway musical based on the classic story, has come to the Kentucky Performing Arts Center. Featuring high flying stunts, dazzling special effects and hilarious comedic relief. Though this show is a light hearted adventure for the family, it also encourages the audience to think about the nature of growing up.
Following a merry opening song from the orchestra, the audience is introduced to the Darling family. Wendy, played by Aubrie-Mei Rubel, is the eldest Darling child and cannot wait to grow up so she can become a surgeon. John, played by Owen Suarez, is the middle child who wishes for nothing more than to study ancient Native American tribes. Michael, played by Zaynn Arora, is the youngest of the bunch and dreams of being a pirate. Their parents love them, though their father, played by Cody Garcia, is very dedicated to his job and strongly emphasizes the importance of having a good career to his young children.
This seriousness is contrasted with the arrival of the fun loving Peter Pan, played by Kruz Maldonado. After flying in through the window, he introduces himself to Wendy. Wendy convinces him to take her and her brothers back to Neverland, Peter’s magical home, with him so they can enjoy adventures and never have to grow up.
“Peter Pan” boasts astounding special effects that leave the audience in awe. These effects are put to use in Peter’s first scene, where he is attempting to reattach his shadow to himself. The use of lighting to eliminate Maldonado’s real shadow while showing Peter’s unattached shadow on the wall was a very clever trick.
The audience’s joy at watching Peter’s shadow transform itself into various shapes on the wall was nothing compared to their awe upon seeing Peter take flight into the air, soaring and flipping across the stage. Peter was soon joined by the rest of the Darling children, and the background of the stage changed to mimic the landmarks the Darlings and Peter fly past.
The special effects weren’t the only thing eliciting a reaction from the audience. “Peter Pan” was filled with antics that left audience members of all ages laughing, especially those of the infamous Captain Hook, played by Cody Garcia, and Smee, played by Kurt Perry. These eccentric pirates and their crew served as hilarious villains to add just the right amount of tension and comedy to the show.
Hook’s antics were not limited to his interactions with Peter. At the beginning of the second act, Hook announces that a redecoration is in order, replacing the green background of Peter’s silhouette with a red background of his own. This breaking of the fourth wall got the audience’s attention and set the mood for the rest of act two.
However, Hook is not the only character to break the fourth wall. Upon discovering that Tinkerbell, Peter’s fairy sidekick, had been poisoned, Peter declares that the only way to save Tinkerbell is for the audience to applaud for her. To the relief of the children in the audience, the roaring ovation that follows Peter’s declaration proves enough to save the beloved fairy. The character’s interactions with the audience serves as an effective tool to engage the crowd with the story.
“Peter Pan” is a fun show for the family to see, but it also offers some commentary as to the problems with growing up. Two extremes are highlighted in this show; that of naive childhood and that of solemn adulthood. While Peter and his friends, the lost boys, claim to be happy with never growing up, they beg Wendy to stay and be their mother. In a particularly dark instance, Hook leaves a poisoned cake outside of the boys’ camp in the hopes that in their naivete they will eat the cake and die. This plan would have worked if Wendy hadn’t been there to step in and stop the boys. The experience with Hook and the cake can be interpreted as a cynical lesson that while maintaining childlike innocence forever sounds nice, the real world is full of dangers that require a sense of reason to avoid.
That isn’t to say that “Peter Pan” advocates for children to abandon all of their childlike wonder in favor of adult cynicism. While “Peter Pan” cautions that one cannot be a naive child forever, the show is more critical of those that abandon their childishness completely. This can be seen in the very fact that on Neverland, this magical isle of paradise, all of the adults are villains. Peter and his lost boys spend an entire song singing about how they can’t imagine anything worse than having to give up their fun in order to “shoulder burdens with a worried air.” This phrase reminds the audience of the Darling children’s father, who was first seen frantically getting ready for a vague work event that he feared could make or break his career and leave him unable to provide for his family.
“Peter Pan” serves as a fun family comedy that reminds us all that while we can’t avoid growing up, we should do all we can to protect our childlike belief in fun, wonder and imagination. “Peter Pan” is playing at the Kentucky Performing Arts Center from March 25-30, 2025. Tickets are available for purchase here.
