Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum treats audiences to their most kids-friendly show in memory with Wendy’s Peter Pan, Ellen Geer’s reimagining of the J.M. Barrie classic as told by a now grown-up Wendy Darling to her three precocious offspring.

Youngest child Michael (Julius Geer-Polin) may want tonight’s bedtime story to be Cinderella, his older brother John (Jaz Bennasar) may consider this to be a “sissy story,” and first-born Wendy 2.0 (Quinnlyn Scheppner) would like nothing more than to read Pipi Longstocking on her own this evening, but “Wendy Mom” (Willow Geer) will have nothing of their protests.

Tonight she’s going to tell her darlings a tale of “magic fairies, a beautiful Neverlandian protector of all things, a forever young boy named Peter,” and three children who just happened to be named Wendy (Scheppner), John (Bennasar), and Michael (Geer-Polin).

The rest of this now 120-year-old tale is same one anyone who’s seen the 1953 Disney animated feature or the 1954 Broadway musical on stage or TV knows pretty much by heart, so no need for further synopsis here.

Suffice it to say that with Mr. and Mrs. Darling (Lynn Robert Berg and Robyn Cohen) out for the evening, family maid Liza (Ianthe Marini) holed up elsewhere in the family residence, and canine nanny Nana (Shoshanna Green) consigned to the doghouse, the timing is ideal for Peter Pan (Gabbi Beauvais) to arrive at the children’s nursery in search of his shadow.

Sound familiar?

I’m guessing it does, so I won’t go into detail about how the three Darling children end up flying off with Peter to Neverland where they meet a bunch of Lost Boys played with impish panache by Cole Dechant, Emelie Dechant, Asher Edwards, Logan Filippi, Luther Geer-Polin, Schroeder Shelby-Szyszko (Curly), Aster Laine Smith, Georgiana Swanson (Slightly), and Elliott Grey Wilson (Tootles).

I also won’t need to remind you that Peter’s number one nemesis is the nefarious pirate Captain Hook (Berg again, in time-honored Peter Pan tradition), accompanied by comedic sea raiders Bill Jukes (Adam Roberts) Cecco (Hunter James), Cookson (Cristian Sanchez), Mullins (Kevin Rauch), Smee (Sky Wahl), and Starky (Craig “Linc” Lincoln), or that there’s nothing that terrifies Hook more than the crocodile who bit off and gobbled down his left hand and keeps on coming back for more.

Completing the cast of characters is a beautiful Mermaid (Cohen) who looks a whole lot like Mrs. Darling, and Tiger Lily (Marini), an indigenous sage with abundant tribal wisdom (“We do not hate our brothers. We do not attack Nature or abuse her. We love all creation. Love is something we must have. Our Spirits feed upon Love.”) to impart.

What sets Wendy’s Peter Pan apart from the many stage and screen adaptations before it is not so much the tale it chooses to tell but the setting in which it tells it. Indeed, rarely have the hills and trees surrounding Theatricum Botanicum’s open-air stage provided a more perfect environment for a summer production, particularly as lit to magical effect by Zachary Moore.

And if you think there’s no way Beauvais (a plucky charmer as Peter) can fly without cables attached to rafters a la Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, and Cathy Rigby, you’re mistaken, because Beauvais’s aerialist Peter does indeed does take flight, and Peter’s not the only one to do so thanks to aerial and movement choreographer Lexi Pearl.

Under playwright Geer’s lively direction, Berg chews the scenery (and welcomes boos) to deliciously dastardly effect in addition to his entertainingly stuffy take on Mr. Darling, while (Willow) Geer and Cohen give a pair of Darling mothers maternal warmth to spare, with Geer scoring bonus points for her hilariously high-pitched high-speed voicing of everyone’s favorite fairy Tinker Bell.

Each and every pirate and child in the cast delights as well (with special snaps to the enchanting Scheppner, the spunky Bennasar, and the adorable Geer-Polin) and the same can be said about Green inside Nana’s head-to-paws fur coat.

As for Marini’s Tiger Lily, while I salute playwright Geer’s attempt to right past wrongs, the character’s re-conception as an indigenous spiritual teacher is tonally out of step with the rest of an otherwise light-as-air production.

Tracy Wahl scores high marks for her Victorian-era and Neverland-specific costumes while sound designer Grant Escandón and music compiler/arranger Marshall McDaniel back the production with Neverland-establishing music and effects.

Fight choreographer Calvin (CR) Mohrhardt has staged some exciting swordplay with weapons culled from Ian Geatz’s multitudinous array of props, and creature creator Megan Geer-Alsop has designed a great big puppet croc just itching to gobble up the rest of Hook.

Hannah Froman is assistant director. Kim Cameron is stage manager and Alex Penner is assistant stage manager. Beth Eslick is wardrobe supervisor. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

If it’s taken Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum this long for Peter Pan to take flight on its stages, it may simply be a matter of J.M. Barrie’s seminal work’s finally entering the public domain this year.

Whatever the reason, Wendy’s Peter Pan makes a high-flying debut that kids and their parents are sure to enjoy.

Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.
www.theatricum.com

–Steven Stanley
September 1, 2024
Photos: Ian Flanders

Tags: Ellen Geer, Los Angeles Theater Review, Sir J.M. Barrie, Theatricum Botanicum