I don't know WHY it is, BUT IT IS! -Peter Pan Goes Wrong review

 This might be the fastest review I’ve ever written. We saw Peter Pan Goes Wrong (henceforth PPGW) at the Birmingham Alexandra Theatre (I probably won’t bring it up again, but henceforth known as The Alex).

All of our party (and probably most of the audience) had seen the TV version (link goes to iPlayer; I think that it is available worldwide paid on Amazon Prime) so we were familiar with a lot of the material. Therefore, this review will be diving into the bits removed from the televised version.

Firstly, did you know that before it was a book or a movie, the original Peter Pan was a play? PPGW is almost verbatim that play, with additional (mostly physical) jokes added. For example (this was in the televised version as well), the narrator has an opening monologue, which Chris (as Mr Darling) keeps interrupting too early.

Before we go on, some housekeeping: I own a copy of the script and currently have it open to remind me of bits I’ve forgotten. I had read it before and there were several minor changes.

To start with, there was a ten minute preshow, which I recalled as having detailed instructions in the script, however when I checked today it was much less specific, only saying that the theatre lights were flickering during the pre show 

The theatre lights were indeed flickering throughout (more on that later), but about ten minutes before the show started, the curtain came up revealing Robert, Chris, Trevor and Jonathan. Jonathan was wearing sunglasses, which was initially confusing, until it became clear he was going full prima donna and going round signing programmes. I wondered at first if he was signing them Gareth Tempest (the actor's real name) or Jonathan Harris. I later discovered he was signing them Peter Pan, which was very confusing.

Chris somehow found a birthday in the audience (Happy belated birthday, Simon!), for which we all sang. 

Meanwhile, Robert and Trevor were having some trouble with the sconces (I had to Google what they are, so no judgment if you do too). There was an extensive bit with them laying a power cable across the entire audience to the sound/lighting desk at the back. Once the sconces were on, they retrieved the cable just in time for the start of the play.

At one point Lucy came out and tried to run away, but she was chased down by the other cast members.

As I follow lots of Mischief members on X, The Social Media Platform Formerly Known As Prince, I thought I would recognise some of the cast, but when I looked them up, I only recognised Ciara Morris, who I saw as Annie in The Play Thay Goes Wrong in 2016 (remind me one day to tell you the most boring Will Ferrell anecdote ever). Ciara was playing Sandra, but as it happens she wasn't there anyway, but was being understudied by Consuela Rolle.

On to the differences!

Firstly, the TV version just has the children take their medicine in the first scene, but the stage show includes an extra part in which Chris asks Robert (as Nana the Dog) to retrieve a spoon, which he can't do due to being stuck in the door.

The TV version uses David Suchet as the narrator, but in the stage show, the narrator is played by another character called Francis. Francis also plays a third pirate called Cecco, a role which was given to Annie in the TV version because apparently she wasn’t playing enough characters already.

Cecco is a minor character, although he does have his moments. 

Firstly, there is a lengthy sequence where Hook is asking Cecco for props (spyglass, rum etc.), none of which Cecco has, resulting in Hook downing half a bottle of alcohol gel (“It’s got quite a kick!”)

Secondly, after Annie is electrocuted, in the TV version, Suchet was asked to cover, which he did by reincarnating his most famous role (“Mesdames et Monsieurs…”) Francis does not have the luxury of having a well-known role owing to this being his only appearance in the CPDSCU (Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society Cinematic Universe)s, so when he was asked to cover, he started singing It’s Raining Men, causing an audience clap-along which came to a crescendo as Chris stopped him

from taking his shirt off.

There's an entire sequence which was cut from the TV version involving Peter and Wendy going underwater to find mermaids. This is illustrated by a black screen across the stage and cast members carrying fluorescent fish puppets, which get mixed up and broken.

There is a part of the show in which Hook tries to poison Peter, which involves a lot of audience participation (“Where is Peter Pan?” “He’s behind you!” “I KNOW! I directed the show, I told him to go there! You have to let me find him!” etc.) However, this bit went a bit awry (even considering that it’s supposed to be going wrong), because an audience member came in too early with “Do you need a hand?” before Hook actually had a chance to try opening the bottle.

As someone with pretty much only use of one hand IRL, opening a bottle like that is easy – you just need to do it while the bottle is on a table.

Back to Chris, who doesn’t know this tip and is now criticising individual audience members for laughing (poor Serena in the front row). This bit went on longer than it was supposed to, and I may have been part of the problem, picking up on absolutely the most tenuous of opportunities to say “Oh no she isn’t!” or similar. I think that Jack Stacey (the actor playing Chris) realised it was going on too long because when actually doing the poisoning, he just got Serena to do it. This meant that when Tinkerbell came to warn Peter, the following exchange should happen:

Peter: Poisoned? Who could have poisoned it?

Tink: [dances]

Peter: Captain Hook?

However, this is what actually happened:

Peter: Poisoned? Who could have poisoned it?

Tink: [points directly at Serena and stares at her]

There’s also a part in which Robert (as Starkey) is meant to free Annie (as Tiger Lily) but accidentally drops his sword, leading to a lengthy exchange with Dennis (as Smee), trying to ask him to pass him the sword, which Dennis doesn’t understand due to Robert’s committal to his unintelligible pirate voice.

Jonathan Sayer (OG Dennis/Co-writer) has said that he and Henry Lewis (OG Robert/Co-writer) can keep this bit going for 5+ minutes (Source: Peter Pan Goes Wrong Along), and Matthew Howell (Robert) and Clark Devlin (Dennis) did an excellent job, even though halfway through an audience member shouted, “Give him the sword!”

In the climax, there is supposed to be a fight between the pirates, the children and the lost boys (multiple are mentioned, but we only ever see Tootles), but the revolve breaks and spins uncontrollably while the fight goes on, travelling around every set.

Fun fact: As the script requires the actors to repeatedly yell “Stop the revolve!”, in the first rehearsal, the stage managers did. Therefore, if something actually goes wrong, the actors instead shout “Cabbage!”

However, in this performance, just before the revolve ‘breaks’, the house lights came on, which we naturally assumed was part of the play, but then a theatre manager came onstage and said the show would be stopping briefly as someone in the circle was ill.

Handling something like that in a show which is meant to go wrong must be extremely difficult, but I think they managed it well. Luckily it didn’t happen a minute later, as the actors would have been partway through running around the set multiple times, which would have been very difficult to rejoin halfway through. 

It’s worth noting that in the TV version, the pirate ship breaks off and goes through the BBC studios, past the unflappable Clive Myrie and kidnapping the equally unflappable Po the Teletubby.

After going through the studio, the ship comes back to the set and crashes through the wall of the Darlings’ bedroom set. Apparently, part of the set was weakened to make it easier to destroy and they only had one take to get it right, but the ship actually destroyed the entire wall and luckily they did get the shot (although Max actually throws Sandra in front of the ship; have you ever noticed that?)

In the stage show, the ship doesn’t break free but the revolve speeds up 

Peter Pan Goes Wrong is on at The Alexandra, Birmingham until 23 March and tickets are still available there and at Opera House Manchester (26-31 March), Leicester Curve (2-7 April) and Cheltenham Everyman Theatre (9-14 April). I recommend watching it, or if you can't see it live it's still on iPlayer for over a year.