Janessa Gillette soars into her youth theatre swan song as the title character, performing with spirited leadership and boyish charm, who much prefers to be leading the adventures of the fun-loving Lost Boys against pirates than listening to a chatty Wendy Darling (except whenever he hears a bit of flattery). And he doesn’t really know exactly what to make of Tinkerbell’s jealous tirades against his new friend Wendy. This is one of the rare productions that has an actual actress playing Tink (rather than a little light), with Hannah Moors as the pixie who is not at all fond of the affection that Wendy showers on Peter. And she’s not afraid to show it, whether she’s carelessly tossing Wendy’s clothes out of her hope chest, or nicely sprinkling pixie dust on young Michael and John before chucking a bunch of it at Wendy, or at one point repeatedly slamming Wendy’s face into the floor.

Poor battered and bruised Wendy is played by Rebecca Ivan, infusing an often bland role with a bit more character than usual, whether she’s dealing with the spiteful sprite, or dealing with a boy who just doesn’t get it, or getting shot in the butt by an arrow fired by a lost boy (after encouragement from Tink). Reed Lievers is amusingly good as younger brother Michael, and Michael Donnell is cute as the youngest, John.

But it’s going to take more than cuteness to survive battle with the pirates of Neverland led by the infamous Captain Hook. Well, okay, they’re not that scary. But they are frighteningly funny. Ryan Hartzell is a dastardly Hook, who literally tries kicking his band of pirates into a more serious lot (when he catches them tricked by Peter Pan into doing the Hokey Pokey, Hook kicks one of them off the stage – thanks in part to the flying apparatus used mostly for sending Peter and the Darling kids flying about). Trevor Sanderson is a riot as his first mate Mr. Smee, playing him as a dotty old man given to calling his sword “my precious,” and with a humongous butt that jiggles giddily when he tangos with Hook, whom Smee clearly adores. Cecco (Mitchell McCollum) adores Captain Hook as well, the one pirate adorned in pink who thinks that Hook’s hook is “sooooo cute.” The pirates are a fun lot, costumed in a variety of colorful costumes – especially when they get in their disguises (a flower, a man with a walker, an ace of spades, a flower, a ballerina, etc.). And, of course, they also manage a pretty mean Hokey Pokey.

Meanwhile, Jalie Fransway leads the Indians as the energetic Tiger Lily, in this case accompanied by her parents – an amusing Chiefy Wiefy (Jake Tidwell) and Chiefy Wiefy Wifey (Sarah Ahlquist). Katie Ventura is a crazy Liza the Maid, and Myles Vencill has great personality as the Darling dog Nana.

Performs June 19 - 22, 2008.

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre