Sally, tell your school/director this:
If you do the Peter Pan musical, and you don't have the flying, then don't do Peter Pan.
Peter Pan is known for the flying. That's a major reason why audiences come. The last thing you want during the "I'm Flying" number is to see confused and disappointed looks on audience members faces.
The flying, really, IS the show. In all honesty, I don't really like the musical (the Leigh/Charlap/Comden/Green/Styne version). I don't hate it, and I don't think there is anything fault technicially in how the show was put together nor its individual components, but I DISLIKE how the story is lightened up. I hate when actors turn Captain Hook into this campy character. I hate how the danger of the story is lost. The major battle at the end of the play should be the climax, but its usually very dull.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great family show and it works for what it is - but the story, in my opinion, should be told much darker. Peter telling Wendy about Neverland and enticing her to go there with her should be more mysterious and fantasy-like.
And then there is "I'm Flying." I don't really think there should be a song about Peter Pan flying. He does this all the time. A song about teaching the Darling kids to fly, maybe. But I think it would work better if there were no song there. Have the scene be this amazing showcase of flying. Let it be an eye-popping wonder of seeing the Darlings and Peter fly from the London skylines to the gates of Neverland. Doesn't have to be all black, smoke, and stars.
I could go on and on, but the point is, you can't do the show without really flying. That would be an injustice.
And that doesn't mean the musical hasn't been done before without flying - it has and I have seen productions of it. It ruins everything. Never have I seen nor heard about a successful attempt to do Peter Pan without flying.
Now then - what to do? Well - inform your director/principal about how the flying works. The two major flying companies, Fly By Foy and ZFX Flying Illusions both put safety first. They have seperate practice sessions to teach you what to do in air not to get hurt - and the people who control (if the company doesnt do it themselves) on how to safely and effectively work the system. There is no real danger - and to this day I have not heard of a school production of Peter Pan where the actors who fly getting hurt.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
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