Flying High Children’s Theatre Can Rest Easy, ‘Peter Pan’ Production Is An All-Around Success

“Peter Pan,” Spokane Children’s Theatre Thursday, Nov. 30, The Met

The public has already issued its own critique: Every seat to every performance of “Peter Pan” was sold out for the entire run.

That means 8,360 kids and adults saw this show by the time it closed last Friday. That’s almost an entire season’s worth of attendance.

The Spokane Children’s Theatre took a big risk in scheduling this show for two weekends at the 760-seat Met, and hiring some of the top theatrical talent in the area. It was the theater’s 50th anniversary, but still, the questions remained: Would people come? Would it be a success?

Yes on both counts.

This show was great fun from beginning to end. During the schoolday performance I attended on Thursday, the kids were clearly enraptured by the pure magic of the whole affair. When Ms. Darling appeared in an elaborate Victorian dress, the kids breathed, “Pretty!” When Jack the golden retriever appeared on stage as Nana, they breathed, “Nice dog!” When Peter Pan and the Darling children flew 15 feet above the stage, they breathed, “Fun!”

The flying was flashy, but the good old-fashioned performances really made this show come alive.

Bobbi Kotula is a perfect Peter Pan. With her Mary Martin vivaciousness and her girlish (boyish?) charm, I really did believe she was a kid who didn’t want to grow up. She brought just the right amount of mischievousness to the part. She was having a wild, good time, and so were we.

She also has excellent comic timing and instincts. She had the children howling with laughter just by the way she flopped down on top of her “shadow.”

The other standout was Patrick Treadway as Captain Hook. Costumed just like Disney’s animated Hook, he brought a decadent snobbiness to the part. He was particularly funny when he told, in the most craven manner possible, the story of the ticking crocodile.

Comedy is the strength of both Kotula and Treadway. Neither, however, have voices strong enough to cut through the four-piece combo and make it to the back of the house. Volume was a constant problem for almost everybody in this show.

The Darling children were great, especially Elizabeth Mealey as Wendy. The Lost Boys, all six of them, were also a lot of fun to watch.

The band of Indians, although not politically correct with their “Ugg-aWugg-a-Wig-Wam” lyrics and dialogue, were directed with a lot of imagination by director Carmen Farley. They were like a comedy drill team, and Briane Jordan, as Princess Tiger Lily, was an especially impressive bundle of energy.

The real show-stealers were Hook and his Pirates. They came on stage looking like some 19th-century biker gang, provoking more than one gasp from the younger crowd. But then they proceeded to belie their image by turning into the Seven Stooges. When they ran off to look for Pan, they proceeded to trample their captain to the ground. And when they came back, they trampled him again, much to the audience’s delight.

Troy Nickerson was especially funny as the goofy Smee. And Nickerson’s contributions did not end there. He was also the choreographer. The dancing, more than the music, was responsible for most of this show’s high points.

For instance, there were the two hilarious pirate numbers, “Pirate Song” and “A Princely Scheme.” The Indians’ big numbers were particularly full of energy and imagination as they go-goed their way around the stage.

“Peter Pan” was a big risk for the Spokane Children’s Theatre, but the result was a triumph.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo