Interesting that you saw the same performance I did and came away liking it more. I was wondering what the other people in your group thought. What did they like and what did they not like?
What did you think of the opening number and all the other songs with the "disgruntled actors"? The first two songs of Act 2 were primarily the acting troop. (Again, this is not a musical about an acting troop!)
I thought the attention on the acting troop stole focus from the primary story, which is Barrie and the Davies family. The creators really need to sit down and just work on Barrie, Sylvia and the Boys, with Mrs. Barrie and Mrs. DuMaurier on the outskirts. Then the acting troop and Frohman are even more on the outskirts --way out!
I thought the opening number should take place in Kennsington Garden with all the park's patrons reacting to the "Famous Man and his Dog" and Barrie struggling with his next play. Mrs. Barrie can be introduced (they did walk together), Sylvia and her Boys are introduced, but they are always just passing each other and never really meeting, though Barrie notices their playfulness. And all of it in Kennsington garden. The song should end with their first actual meeting. That way the main characters and their situations are all introduced And then BAM!! The two (Barries and Davies) meet. End of song! Now THAT is what a good opening number does; introduces the characters, their situations and then throws them all together.
(I love how they meet in the BBC movie where George asks Barrie if Porthos is going to bite him and Barrie says "Not unless you ask him agreeably." George says, "Why not?" and Barrie replies, "Because he is uncommonly fussy about who he bites. He doesn't just bite any old whipper snapper." )
Also, what did you think about the Mary Barrie rearranging furniture song?
Did you think "Believe" was as hokey as I found it?
What did you think of the songs "Hook" and "Stronger"? I think that again the creators have lost focus --it is not so much the story of Barrie the struggling play writer, it is about his relationship with the family and that needs to have some significance in the final number of the act. Sylvia and the Boys have no bearing at all in that Act 1 closer.
Did you think the illness of Sylvia came on too quickly? It is really introduced in the middle of Act 2 quite literally (there were 4 songs before her illness and 4 songs after).
I think when you talk about people crying at the end you are talking about the scene where Sylvia goes to Neverland. Yes, a character dying will make people cry. But that was not the ending of the play. There was a scene and a song after that and I think that ending fell flat.
I like the idea of Barrie being much older in the final scene (I wonder if it could even by after Peter's death by drowning or in the war --of course it was Michael who drowned and George who was killed in the war,but does that really matter? After all it was George and Jack who inspired Peter Pan, not Peter who was still an infant at the time). An older Barrie remembering the children, maybe even singing a final song with them perhaps the boys could be behind a scrim of some kind to indicate he is simply remembering them the way he loved them best, when they were young. (Barrie once wrote, "Nothing much matters after you are 12. Twelve is the beginning of the end.") If our last look at the boys is as Barrie remembers them, then there is no need for older actors to be brought in to play them.
Anyway, I hope your write more of your thoughts and the thoughts of the folks who were with you. I love hearing from different perspectives.
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