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Flight for more than just Peter Pan


A text like Peter Pan banks on wonder, given an audience of children who would be overwhelmed by the idea of flight. But it also banks on an adult audience that can go back to an amount of youthful innocence, given the familiar. Of course this familiarity can also be this text’s undoing, owing to its many versions, some more iconic than others (think Robin Williams as Peter). Any staging / rendering / version then can only really be successful in light of this kind of intertextuality: an audience will bring to this text everything – big or small, major or minor – that they know about the text. And it’s entirely possible that in the end this will only mean a harsh judgment of the version that unfolds in front of them. Or not. Repertory Philippines’ Peter Pan, A Musical Adventure is difficult to put down, even when you’re a jaded adult. Of course it could’ve just been me, ready as I was to be fascinated by the flying this production was treating the audience to. But there were other things here that were wonderful too, if not surprisingly seamlessly done by the production. There was that set design by Gino Gonzales for one thing, where the Darling children’s bedroom easily became the city of London, with beds and furniture flipped over to reveal buildings. Once in Neverland, the process of building Wendy a house as she slept was also intelligently allowed by the set, where the floors and trees became the walls and, uh, vegetation, for what would be a tribute to the one girl-turned-parent in the land where kids don’t grow up. That set could have also only worked though, because the costumes by Raven Ong went beyond expected here. Granted that the different groups within the narrative make it easy to differentiate one from the other, these costumes were not just being playful and childish and were actually youthful and intricately detailed – it would be an injustice to dismiss them altogether on the premise of easy. The Lost Boys’ costumes, for example, is usually rendered as drab and tattered to contrast with the bright green of Peter; but here the Lost Boys are in bright neon colors, distinct from each other, allowing them a character each, even as we don’t know their names. The same is true for Tiger Lily and the Piccaninnies, in costumes across the spectrum of reds and yellows, in direct contrast with the Lost Boys, and even more so against the dark hues of the pirate clothes. It goes without saying that the costumes of Captain Hook and the Darlings were en pointe. And then there’s the choreography by Deana Aquino, one that obviously worked with those costumes too, allowing for an additional layer of movement to the dancing. The Piccaninnies are allowed to be playful even as they hold weapons, innocent even as they are warriors. The Lost Boys too are given their place in the dancing sun; this bunch of young male actors might be the most engaging I’ve seen onstage since the Streetboys – and they sing to boot. But much of the singing credit goes to the lead actors of Peter Pan, A Musical Adventure. Tippy Dos Santos as Wendy could work with more charm and less of the whining, but goodness this girl can sing like no one can. In duets, which were really duels with Peter, Tippy’s voice was strong without being overpowering, and there was nary a scream even as she was belting it out. Her solo in “Just beyond the stars" was the perfect balance of heartfelt pining for home, as it was about wishing for youth, stuck as she was in the role of mother in Neverland. Michael Williams as Captain Hook was as good as you’d expect, forgetting as you do that it’s actually him, where it isn’t so much the singing that creates the antagonist here as it is the attitude, the comic relief, the refusal to make Captain Hook scary to an audience that’s presumed to be young and rooting for the flying protagonist. Which brings us to Peter Pan in the hands of Sam Concepcion, who’s a familiar face on TV, yet on that stage is able to extricate himself from his commercial image. We might say that there’s no real difficulty here, as Peter’s character is fixed and easy to portray on stage. But there’s nothing easy about Sam ably making the audience forget his commercial persona. He becomes Peter Pan from that first moment he flies onto the stage in a pose that can only be familiar. Here, Sam’s singing is also proven to be so much more than what a commercial career allows, and his agility and nimbleness is a dance in itself that allows him to navigate that stage even with the instability of being attached to a string. His confidence here is really quite ahead of his years, and it seems too easy but it’s ultimately truthful to say that it’s here as Peter that Sam just flies. As would the audience, adults included. It seems that we are being told that at least for a couple of hours, it might do us all well to let go of the jadedness and suspend disbelief, and see that the story of Peter Pan isn’t a fairy tale that ends happily. It’s in fact a narrative that speaks about time and age and wisdom, a sad story really, but that might be because it leaves us with very little choice but to snap out of it in the end – flight, fantasy and all. – YA, GMA News Peter Pan, A Musical Adventure is directed by Jaime del Mundo and Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Book by Willis Hall, Music and Lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. It runs until October 30, 2011 at the Meralco Theater along Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City.

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