I saw Finding Neverland Thursday night and wanted to wait until I could watch the film again before I shared my feelings about what I saw at ART. On the whole IMO they have taken an adult movie about inspiration, finding your inner child, accepting death and explaining death to a child and dumbed it down a bit to be part Disneyanna, part Blue’s Clues Revue and parts So You Think You Dance at its most bizarre . Diane Paulus fresh off the circus gravy train with Pippin is back with some more theatre translations of cirque tricks using the Montreal based’s AmaLuna show’s opening and closing special effect to even better effect as a magical finale for Neverland. That visual, which matches the films fantastical ending very nicely, sends the audience out on a high as does the staging of the first act Captain Hook finale. A show is in great shape when it sends its audience out into the lobby or street oohing and ahhing but a musical should be doing that with more than the staging and special effects.
For most of the evening I found myself being drawn in when the musical stayed close to the source material and frustrated when it tried to open things up. In the film the actors in the troupe register as not being happy with the choice of a children’s fantasy for their next production when Barrie first presents it to them but they go with it as any acting troupe would. Here we get those simple moments stretched out to where we meet a theatre company (in search of a Kiss Me Kate production?) who revolt at the thought of performing Peter Pan and are quickly brought on board by a rousing My Fair Lady like, Mary Poppinish choral number replete with clinking ale glasses. The musical number “Play” is a missed opportunity and a poorly written place holder for something “up beat” in what essentially is a tragic play. This acting troupe also occupies the first fifteen minutes of Finding Neverland to deadening affect.
The love story behind this show which could resurrect the conversations this board had about the adulterers in Bridges of Madison County is consummated in a Disney Prince and Princess love song ("What You Mean To Me")that includes projections Walt himself would be proud of. The relationship or the affair at the heart of Finding Never land deserves something more complex. But complexity is what this production only faces half the time and dresses it up in butterflies and puppy dog tails the other 50% of the time because I think its making a play for the kiddie crowd – when the subject matter is all wrong for children. I did see many a little girl in the audience, I think they thought they were getting a Disney show – which if you ignored the plot – Finding Neverland looked and felt a lot like. The plot has us watch a child with deep psychological problems from the secretive death of his father watch his mother get sick and die. A tragedy worthy of a dramatic musical perhaps but this one plays it so lightly at times it makes one want to shake the authors into a re-write.
There is an amazing musical number called “When Your Feet Don’t Touch The Ground” where the adult Barrie and the child Peter take solace in each other after facing the tragic truth about their mother/lover’s doomed future. The performances, the vocals, the staging and the orchestrations all swelled to address a complexity in the storytelling that seemed impossible to verbalize or visualize. The aforementioned Captain Hook first act finale does the same; it combines pop art staging and orchestrations to tell the complex inner psychology of the lead character. Both numbers were medicines that were easier to take with a spoon full of musical theatre sugar.
But then there were the kids numbers, the Blues Clues inspired “Believe” and “We’re All Made of Stars”, with their saccharine lyrics, pop music beats and jazz hand staging’s that made me wince until I saw the 4 or 5 year old girl next to me smile. Once again I couldn’t figure out if she was improperly brought to an adult show or was I the uncle dragged along to a show that was trying to keep us both engaged?
Barrie's wife is made to play a buffoon in this adaptation. Her first act number “Rearranging the Furniture” is taken from a sad melancholic line in the film which helps paint a picture of a woman not engaged in her marriage a woman who avoided facing the truth. Here they take that line literally and try to create a comedic number where none should exist. Here too is where we get our second dose of the most bizarre choreography a Broadway show has seen in – maybe ever.
SYTYCD is a guilty pleasure for me. At times I find it to be the most creative and inspirational of the talent shows on the tube. Mia Michaels has created many a memorable and thrilling dance number for that show. When I heard she was involved here I got very excited. Here more than anywhere does this show look like the product of a desperate producer than the vision of an inspired team of collaborators. The group of dancers in this show (yes there is a separate chorus of dancers) look like they were selected from the cast of SYTYCD and put in a room with Mia to create their numbers which were inserted into the show after the tone had been set. The movement for the acting troupe at the top of the show was jarring; the campy ballet moves while they “Rearrange the Furniture” were embarrassing. The Brady Bunch staging of “Believe” and “We’re All Made of Stars” just silly and too staged. I will say she did brilliant, if again schizophrenic work on the carousel and revolving door movement of “Circus of Your Mind” and the beautifully staged Peter Pan ballet in the finale. But overall her work was more distracting and showy than helpful to the whole.
I thought Jeremy Jordon did great work as J.M. Barrie as did Laura Michelle Kelly as Sylvia Davies. Two of the Davies brothers (The youngest and oldest?) were fantastic. The actor playing Peter Davies left much to be desired for me. Carolee Carmello’s character of the grandmother was one of the few that transferred from the film unscarred . She was very good if unremarkable in the role. Michael McGrath played the producer like a vaudevillian and his Hook was not as menacing as I would have liked.
I am shocked that they are considering this show for the Winter Garden because it’s not a “big” show. I think it would benefit from a more intimate house. But first it would benefit from another out of town try out where the creators can take what they learn in Boston and come back with a better product. I must report that the audience went nuts for the show. I just wished the tone were closer to the film’s tone in every way. Right now you have to sit though a lot of hokum to get to the meat of the show. It ran more than two hours and 45 minutes when I saw it. They could easily cut 30 minutes if they can’t sharpen the focus and even out the tone.
PS: They should cut the gay joke. Really WTF?
Up In One
