Peter Pan
Richmond Theatre
12 December 2002 - 19 January 2003

Initially I was apprehensive about some of the castings in the show, namely Bonnie Langford as Peter Pan. However, I was proved wrong. Bonnie put all her energy into the role, a role which required great agility (flying on wires, standing on backs on chairs in the audience). Her obvious enthusiasm for the role was infections and transmitted itself to the audience, particularly the children.

Robert Powell was Captain Hook. I did feel that he underplayed the role. maybe I was expecting more from this seasoned actor

Mike McClean as Smee however shone, providing most of the laughs. He and his band of pirates (all trained gymnasts and tumblers called The Acromaniacs) put in an excellent stunt routine in the middle of the show. Mike also had his own solo spot with four children from the audience which proved to be very humorous.

Jodie Jacobs played Tinkerbell in her professional debut and with this sort of performance, I'm sure there will be many more opportunities for this talented actress. She is defiantly one to watch in the future.

However the best part of the whole show was when bricks (actually blocks of foam) were issued to the whole audience to throw on stage at the pirates. Chaos reined!!!!

One last point - The crocodile failed to create any dramatic or scary effect. I felt that most of the kids wanted to hug him!