Reveiwed by Ceri Horner
July 2014
There have been many retellings of the famous tale of Peter Pan. The great thing about Pan The Man is it is written for a Youth Theatre Company or school to perform, and as a result has a great range of small parts so everyone gets an opportunity to shine.
This musical is a retelling from the perspective of Captain Hook and Wendy and includes most of the regular characters and few surprise new ones.
Directors Penny and Michaela Phillips have assembled a large cast of around 30 performers who fill the small Tea Tree Players stage with plenty of colour, energy and enthusiasm.
Jordon Kulikovski shows a lot of promise as the young Peter Pan and handles his dialogue well. Kulikovski could improve his performance a great deal by learning not to shuffle his feet.
Ethan Dight has great presence as Captain Hook while Lachlan Blackwell has created a perfectly goofy Smee. Shayla Mitchell sings sweetly as Nibs, and Caleb Bond handles his dialogue well as Carstairs.
Other great performances come from Gemma Kinna O’Brien as Wendy, Tayla Cini as Tinkerbell and the large and very enthusiastic ensemble.
The only real disappointment was the lack of choreography for a musical, which left the young cast just standing there during the instrumental breaks in songs. I was very surprised to see two people credited with this role in the program.
Still there was plenty of budding talent on the stage to entertain and a plethora of corny jokes that kept the opening night audience of enthralled children and proud parents entertained.
