Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice, directed by Matthew Decker. Theatre Horizon in Norristown PA, May 2018.
The 2009 play Peter and the Starcatcher is, ostensibly, the story of how Peter Pan came to be. If you concentrate on that, however, you’re missing the larger picture.
This really is a fantasy which gives a director and actors a chance the be imaginative and to present whimsical stagecraft. Matthew Decker’s production astounds and delights.
If what you desire is a history of J. M. Barrie’s creation, look to Finding Neverland as reviewed here. Peter and the Starcatcher, on the other hand, was scripted by playwright Rick Elice (co-writer of Jersey Boys), adapted from a novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, to go off in new tangents.
We are transported to Victorian England and meet characters such as Lord Aster, his daughter Molly, Mrs. Bumbrake, Greggors, Grempkin and Bill Slank. It’s useless to try to link them to Peter Pan personages, although one of them does evolve into Captain Hook just before the play’s end. Don’t be literal. Use your imagination. This is a surreal creation akin to Monty Python’s chronicles of King Arthur and the Holy Grail.
The dialogue is crammed with malaprops and non-sequiturs, like talking in “Norse Code,” and mollusks speaking in food names. The fun comes from the insanity of all that we see and hear, and Decker imaginatively devises hundreds of tricks that surprise.
Peter and the Starcatcher illustrates the power of community (just as Fiddler on the Roof does) — of people linked together in a situation that tests them. Director Decker expands this motif and provides an original prologue where lost souls come out of a storm and into a soup kitchen in the basement of a church, seeking companionship. When the power fails and their lights go out, they start to tell stories. Rather, one story, with each person picking up where the last person leaves off.
It seems like a gathering around a campfire, similar to the concept which Decker used in Theatre Horizon’s superb Into the Woods in 2015 — See here. In this production, these individuals are looking for a community where they can feel safe, loved, and cared for.
An ensemble of actors play multiple roles and provide narration. They react to one another and support each other with a feeling of collaboration. The plot involves two ships bound for a distant island, containing locked trunks, one of which holds a treasure called “starstuff” which is so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. This is what Alfred Hitchcock used to call a MacGuffin — the mysterious object in a spy thriller that sets the chain of events into motion, yet actually is meaningless.
Basically a non-musical, Peter and the Starcatcher has underscoring composed by Wayne Barker that accompanies the action in brief bursts, plus a few actual songs. They sound like English music hall crossed with the populist ditties of Marc Blitzstein. “Swim On” has challenging harmonies and frequent tempo changes. A catchy mermaid number reminds us of “Oh Moon of Alabama” from Mahagonny by Kurt Weill, both being outlandishly simple pop songs in the midst of melodrama.
Music director/pianist Amanda Morton and percussionist Michael McCoy Reilly add sound effects, and both of them jump up from their instruments to play roles in the comedy.
Because it’s a true ensemble piece, I’ll list the other excellent players in alphabetical order: David Bardeen, Ciera Gardner, Ben Grinberg, Johnnie Hobbs Jr., Maggie Johnson, Leigha Kato, Mel Krodman, Trey Lyford, Kevin Meehan, Samantha Rosentrater. (When the play was on Broadway in 2012, Christian Borle won a Tony award as best featured actor, playing the villain Black Stache.)