Following seasons in Melbourne and Adelaide, Peter and the Starcatcher lands on stage at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre filled with twinkling lights, a flurry of colourful puppets, a hardworking cast of twelve, and a promise of whimsy and adventure. But while this over-saturated prequel to the famous story of Peter Pan does offer up some dazzling moments of creative stagecraft, colourful puppetry, and cheerfully comedic performances, it never quite takes flight.
This swashbuckling play (that’s right, it’s not a musical, although it does incorporate some lovely live music) offers flashes of theatrical magic and fun – the school of silly, fabulous mermaids who populate the second act are particularly entertaining as they kick and twirl in their silver platform boots adorned with tail fins (they’ve all freshly been magically transformed from fish by the magic of “starstuff”, you see). However, audiences young and old alike may struggle to find a foothold for their sea legs as they attempt to follow along with the baffling and abrasive series of events. All the while, the cast narrates us through this seafaring story as if reciting words out of a book, but that somehow doesn’t help.
Originally commissioned and produced by Disney Theatrical Group, Rick Elice (co-writer of Jersey Boys) adapted Starcatcher for the stage from the 2004 novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The show swashbuckles its way to Australian shores after picking up five Tony Awards from its time on Broadway (however, it should come as no surprise that none of the aforementioned awards have anything to do with the script). Central to the story is the motherless, high-achieving 15-year-old Molly (a cart-wheeling Olivia Deeble), who is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a fully-fledged "Starcatcher" – a small, secret brigade of people sworn to protect a mysterious magical substance known as “starstuff”, who are also deeply loyal to the British Crown. Molly finds herself adrift at sea on one ship while her father is carrying out a mission on a different ship, and she befriends a trio of frightened, “lost” orphan boys who have been stowed below deck like cargo.
Audiences may be left feeling a bit lost at sea (but at least that sea is home to some charming merfolk?)
There are nods to the playful and adaptive sensibilities of British pantomime, including jabs at figures like Elon Musk, light-hearted pokes at adventure tropes and British colonialism, and some local accents thrown in. If the production allowed itself to take this energy further, it might’ve helped to keep the audience on deck for the entire ride. The story feels head-spinningly rushed while also dragging out unnecessarily, and amidst the waves of action there are very few substantial details to get us invested in the central characters and relationships – including the blossoming will-they-or-won't-they tween love affair between the boy who is yet-to-be-named Peter (Otis Dhanji) and Molly, who will have you know that “girls can dream too!”. (However outdated the gender dynamics may feel, the “light” yet persistent fat-shaming humour is a little more uncomfortable.)
Meanwhile, some standout performances bring an uplifting buoyancy to the whole affair, including local treasure Paul Capsis (The Lewis Trilogy, The Chairs, La Cage aux Folles) as Bill Slank/Hawking Clam, who chews the scenery to kingdom come and lends a brilliantly bizarre and eccentric set of inflections to each movement and syllable. Colin Lane (of Lano & Woodley fame) also serves up a scene-stealingly camp performance as Black Stache, a rather gentlemanly pirate captain (whose right hand’s days are numbered). Black Stache is never without his faithful first mate, Smee (a perfectly acceptable Pete Helliar). Ryan González (In The Heights, Zombie! The Musical) also brings a commanding effervescence to the stage in no less than four named roles, including the ambiguous island chief ‘Fighting Prawn’ (and also clocking in even more overtime as the main puppet handler).
As noted in Time Out Melbourne’s review, “this is a production that doesn’t skimp on talent” and this ensemble “zip[s] through characters and costume changes with an energy that borders on alchemical. The result is an ensemble performance where each character owns their moment – there’s truly no room for wallflowers on this stage.”
Another drawcard is the puppetry, with a suite of luminescent creatures of all shapes and sizes designed and crafted in Brisbane by the Dead Puppet Society. Flittering schools of fish, flocks of wily birds, a flying ship’s cat, an enormous man-eating crocodile and others set the scene for a world where magic can happen. David Morton’s direction and design utilises some simple roving set pieces to take us from upper and lower decks to the shorelines and deep jungle of the island that is yet-to-be-named Neverland, and Ben Huges’ lighting design “sweeps us from day to night, underwater to sky, as twinkling stars float across the stage”.
Much like the production of The Lord of the Rings - A Musical Tale that just journeyed off from a brief Sydney season, Starcatcher contains some glimpses of magic, but ultimately reads as a shallow exercise in latching onto the commercial success of an existing fictional world. Audiences may be left feeling a bit lost at sea (but at least that sea is home to some charming merfolk?).
The Australian tour of Peter and the Starcatcher is produced by the Dead Puppet Society, Glass Half Full Productions, Jones Theatrical Group and Damien Hewitt. The strictly limited Sydney season closes on February 9. Tickets are on sale over here.