A lot goes right in Peter Pan Goes Wrong
The more that goes wrong, the more it’s right. Peter Pan Goes Wrong is playing a limited run on Broadway before it heads off to Los Angeles to wow the audience there as well.
Brought to us by the same creative team behind the Tony Award winner The Play That Goes Wrong as well as Magic Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, this show is totally, utterly and definitely among the most fun you will have at a theatre.
London’s Mischief Theatre Company brings its ensemble cast from the UK to Broadway and they all continue to amaze with the most physical humor you’d find in a show with “goes wrong” in the title.
The one theme among all of their shows is the backstage antics take center stage in all of their productions in which anything and everything goes wrong – from costumes to poorly constructed sets to actors who have stage fright or forget their lines. They find the humor in all of these situations and share them with us, among pratfalls and dangling upside down — they perform these antics in the show, with endless laughter from the audience. Surprisingly, one wonders how they can do these eight times a week and seemingly free of harm at the end of the day…even though what we see on stage seems to hurt.
The creators and cowriters of the show (and the other ones as well) — Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Jonathan Sayer — are never afraid to be the brunt of any joke themselves and the chemistry (and trust) among them and their troupe of actors from London shows on stage. To do a bit that involves falling or being lifted by others takes a lot of trust as when the actors do “suffer” from the injuries their characters endure, the actors need to have faith in their fellow actors.
This show, in which the troupe tries to put on a production of Peter Pan, has power failures, an electrocution and characters being knocked unconscious — that’s really a lot that occurs that could lead to a real injury.
The Mischief makers continue to surround themselves with the most talented team you’d ever find — too bad the Tony Awards didn’t have a Best Ensemble cast category as they likely would take home the prize. Alas, they don’t and the award committee neglected to single out anyone from the cast as well, which is shocking for all especially in the case of Nancy Zamit, who plays multiple characters often at the same time.
For now, the Broadway production has been extended through July 23, 2023. But it can’t stay much longer as it will be traveling to Los Angeles soon after that.
If you want a taste of their fun and antics, streaming is their wonderful series The Goes Wrong Show. But live is the way to go, so check it out: https://pangoeswrongbway.com/
