THE STAGE REVIEW | PETER PAN

Peter PanPublished Tuesday 13 December 2011 at 10:43 by Susie WildYo ho ho! The boy who will never grow up leads a large cast on an overly-ambitious swashbuckling festive adventure. Beginning with a good ole cockney knees-up, this patchy pirate tale transports the prim and proper Wendy and her brothers away from their traditional, Conservative London home to the freer, fairy-populated Neverland. Calum Small is suitably stubborn and sprightly as the airborne Peter Pan. Llinos Thomas makes a prettily-voiced lovestruck Wendy and BBC Radio Wales personality Owen Money is his affable self as Smee.The plot doesn't throw up any big surprises. There is an unfurling love story between Peter Pan and Wendy which results in a horribly histrionic Tinkerbell (Becci Lewis), and a battle to rescue the Lost Boys from the dastardly Captain Hook. An elaborate set causes stilted scene changes and a disjointed pace. Still, as the show is packed full of audience participation, from ants-in-your-pants actions to the standard shouts of "He's behind you!" there are few dull moments. Highlights include acrobatic flight, a UV skeleton dance, under-the-sea SpongeBob SquarePants puppetry, and a comic interlude of name-guessing between the pirates Smee, What and How. This season's most popular song choice - Katy Perry's Firework - becomes the sing-a-long finale.Production informationBlackwood Miners' Institute, Gwent, December 12-28, then touring until February 19Author:Alan WightmanDirector:Owen MoneyProducer:Rainbow Valley ProductionsCast includes:Owen Money, Lloyd Davies, Calum Small, Russell Gomer, Llinos Thomas, Becci LewisRunning time:2hrs 20minsProduction information can change over the run of the show.