Review: Peter Pan, Richmond Theatre

Written for The Stage

It’s panto by numbers down in Richmond, where Family First Entertainment’s Peter Pan ticks all the boxes without much individual flourish. While it’s well-balanced festive nutrition, it emerges somewhat flavourless, needing just that bit more sauce and seasoning.

If Bonnie Langford will ever grow out of the boy who wouldn’t grow up, she shows no signs of it here. Her perennial Peter Pan is a chipper young buck with more showbiz glitz than boyish mischief, as she mixes some fearless aerial tumbles with a flashy white smile. By comparison, Simon Callow’s diaphragm-busting Captain Hook makes something of a gentle nemesis, having to actively seek disapproval from his audience. Sterling work from Tony Rudd as Smee injects humour, life and - mercifully - pace into proceedings.

Peter Denyer and Fenton Gray’s adaptation is light on Barrie’s plot, with Hook submitting rather easily to his own plank and little exploration of the Darling family home. While there is plenty of (stocking) filler, 2008 gets off rather lightly. Aside from the rotting carcass of Jonathan Ross at Marooner’s Rock, the preference is for televisual references over topical ones.

This, however, provides the evening’s musical highlight as the pirates indulge in a five-part harmony of catchphrases, featuring Bruce Forsyth, Peggy Mitchell and a Dalek.

Terry Parsons’ pop-up book design elevates professionalism, but production values get in the way of spirit. Projecting Tinkerbell removes the magic of make-believe and an unnecessarily realistic crocodile loses its comic menace.

In lacking real character of its own, Richmond’s Peter Pan only flies with an abundance of good will.