Those who never had the opportunity to venture into Panto Land with City Theatre’s “Snow White: A British Panto” will get their chance when the sequel, “Peter Pan: A British Panto,” comes to City Theater. The sequel falls into the Hollywood sequel trap, lacking the same freshness, originality and luster as its predecessor.
A panto is a type of theatre comedy genre where gender roles are mixed and the action follows no logical sequence.
“Peter Pan” is still comical and farcical but with vocals being extra pitchy and off-key, they could shatter windows and the chasing sequences are way too long drawn. They would run and run and run in circles throughout most of the first act. There’s even a line from one of songs a pirate sings amidst the tediously lengthy chases and screams.
“I don’t know what I’ve been told but chasing Peter Pan is getting kind of old,” sings Sarah Rowland, as the character of Assistant Captain Crunch, toward the end of the first act.
And what happened to the title character? The play is titled “Peter Pan” but he was practically missing from the whole production. When Amelia Van Brunt, who portrays Peter Pan, does appear on stage, she has no presence, no thunder, no magic and fails to achieve a convincing embodiment of Peter Pan. It’s the minor characters that carry the weight of the play. The Dame, portrayed by Doug Lawson, and Buttons, portrayed by Trina Palmer, led them.
The Dame returns as Tinkerbell and she’s bigger than ever both in both body and humor. She cracks her jokes around her physique and whether her fairy wings make her buttocks look too large. Yet, she is still the loyal guardian of the title character and keeps both the character and the production moving along. Her narration was original, and sublimely naughty, plus handing out candy to the audience doesn’t hurt her performance either.
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This play should have been aptly called “The Dame and Buttons: A British Panto” because they steal the show from Peter Pan and make it much better and entertaining. The cultural references were well mixed throughout but it was apparent that some were intended for audiences over 30 and others around the 20s range.
Although there is always something negative to critique like bad casting choices or vocals there’s always something positive stemming from the bad, sort of like hope from Pandora’s box.
Like the production’s final musical number, ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”, the fun loving frolic lets you enjoy yourself and act childish.
“You can dance, you can jive; having the time of your life.”
Peter Pan by Allison Vallenzuela