‘Finding Neverland’ brings story of Peter Pan’s creation to the stage
Billy Harrigan Tighe’s most vivid recollection of the story of Peter Pan was not the famous tale by J.M. Barrie but the 1991 movie “Hook” starring Robin Williams as a grown-up Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as the infamous pirate captain.
“I became obsessed with the movie,” he said. “I spent countless summers at the pool playing Captain Hook and the Lost Boys.”
Now Tighe is playing another role from the Peter Pan universe. He stars as Barrie, Pan’s creator, in the musical “Finding Neverland,” which opens today at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
The musical tells the story of how Barrie came to write the 1904 hit play that started the Peter Pan legend, which has captured the imagination of generations of children and spawned countless stage and screen retellings. Partly based on fact, the show features a Barrie plagued by writer’s block whose imagination is unleashed when he strikes up a relationship with four fatherless boys and their mother.
Tighe no longer frolics as Hook or the Lost Boys in pools. But has he, like Peter, yearned never to grow up?
“I feel like as an actor that’s pretty much where I live all the time,” he said.
Of course, he’s a responsible adult with bills to pay. But “I got into theater because I love telling stories and leaving the audience with a message,” he said. “What’s not important to me on stage is my mortgage.”
What’s the message of “Find-
ing Neverland”?
“It’s never too late to find thing that make you happy in life and to rediscover your zest for life,” the actor said.
The musical, which features a book by James Graham and music and lyrics by Gary Barlow, is based on the 2004 movie by the same name and Allan Knee’s play “The Man Who Was Peter Pan.”
Neither Barrie nor Sylvia, the boys’ widowed mother, is a typical Edwardian adult. Sylvia isn’t the prim and proper turn-of-the-20th-century lady she was raised to be, said Lael Van Keuren, who plays the character.
“She’s chosen not to remarry,” she said. “She’s chosen to raise four boys by herself.”
She connects with Barrie because of his ability to bring happiness to her children.
As for Barrie, “he was an artist stuck in the wrong time period,” Tighe said. “That’s why his work is so resonant.”
Barrie possessed a childlike wonder and youthful zest for life that chafed against the rigid mores of his times, the actor said.
The show combines upto-the-minute special effects with old-fashioned stage magic that wouldn’t have been out of place in the early 20th century. For example, when Barrie is playing with the children in the nursery and the idea of having his characters fly comes to him, members of the ensemble lift the children into the air to emulate flying.
“It’s a beautiful moment,” Van Keuren said. “It’s a glimpse into a genius’ imagination.”
The show doesn’t adhere strictly to the facts.
For example, Barrie didn’t just happen upon Sylvia and the boys in the park after Sylvia’s husband’s death. He knew Sylvia and her husband well. The show also hints at a budding romance between Barrie and Sylvia. As adults, her sons denied the inference.
That doesn’t matter, Tighe said. What’s important, he said, is that the message of the show is true. We might have to grow up, but we don’t have to corral our imaginations or our sense of wonder along the way.