Peter Pan, El Musical

Saturday night saw my girlfriend Random (don't ask), her mother and myself in a Tappas bar in London, consuming really nommy foods and drinking San Miguel, whilst waiting for The Garrick Theatre to open at 7:30, whereupon we were subjected to *Peter Pan, El Musical*.

A Spanish production (you already guessed?), this show has apparently already been seen by a million people. One critic discribed it as *Using cheap, last decade lighting, poor costumes, poorer sets, and with a loud cast dancing to tinned music whilst performing aerobics and bump and grind*. He did not like it at all. He just didn't get it.
The play opened with a simple (so last decade, darling) laser display, utilising one green laser and a series of fractioning mirrors, and ending up displaying that well-known Peter Pan outline on the screen. Yes, it was not high tech, but it worked.

Next scene was in the Darling's bedroom. (Poor sets). No, it was a very elegant, stylistic set. Bright colours, furniture stylised to represent, rather than replicate its real-life analogue. It was all that was needed. Your mind filled in the gaps. The way it should in a good stage show. You don't *need* to be told exactly what is happening. You don't *need* to be shown *This is a bed. This is a campfire. This is a tree*.

There were 19 on stage in total, playing a multitude of characters. Notable were Miguel Antelo as Pan, who managed to bring a sense of awe and fun to his character, in spite of rather too much hands on hips and *Cockorico* crowing. We'll get back to him shortly. Miguel Angel Gamero played Hook, and I am not sure which terrifid me most. His makeup, which was Luciferian in outlook, his voice, which was powerful and ranged from gut-rumbling to *My glasses just shattered* or his wobbly jaw when he sang...

The character of Michael was played by a smallish blonde lass, and I really enjoyed her mugging and playing about on the periphery. She was also the incredibly athletic indian squaw in some dance scenes, with the application of a long black wig and the removal of quite a lot of clothing. Not, you undertand, that I noticed...

Talking of clothing...there was one lost boy, wearing pink trousers. They were, um...figure-hugging. To the point that as we were so close to the stage, every time he turned round I ducked, for fear of losing an eye. He had...a fairly large investment portfolio, and his stocks were showing. Random-Mum was...hypnotised.

The songs were enthusiastically performed to a pre-recorded backing, which may have been a little loud, but not excessively so. The dancing contained quite a bit of bottom shaking, shoulder twitching and high kicks. Its a panto! It was just what you would expect.

There were Pirates, there were lost boys (and girls), there were Indians, there were...possibly the most muscular hand-standing mermaids I have ever seen...not that I have seen many. There was a very well done display of Drumming and dancing in the Indian Camp sequence.

Sadly, as it was in Spanish, Random and I were out of sync laughing at the jokes, having to run them through the Anglo-Spanish translator part of our heads. Pan marked us down as English, and we came in for a bit of flack.

Smee. another well-done part, was creepy, yet funny. He took, at one stage, when the, erm, stage was being reset, a small English speaking son of a Spanish couple, and sat him on the edge of the stage. Whilst the poor lad struggled to understand what he was being told, Smee set the lads legs to swinging. *Look! On one stage! Peter Pan and Avenue Q* Okay, maybe you needed to be there...

All in all it was a really good production. The Garrick is looking literally threadbare, with gaps and holes in the carpet, but lets face it, it has been there since what? 1890? Something like that. The show provided just the right quantity of fantasy, music, eye-candy and escapism to make me give it a good 9/10. It would have got a 10, had certain people of an English persuasion not had to stand and sing *We believe in fairies* in English and Spanish.

If you are in London, and have the chance, go see it. There are *Sur-titles* above the stage in English, but hey, this is a production of Peter Pan, you really shouldn't need them. A quantity of the box office goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital as well, which is a bonus. Just brush up on *We do believe in fairies* in Spanish first

Great review Gaz - thanks for that