Synopsis

Act 1

The Darling Nursery

As Mr. and Mrs. Darling prepare for an evening out, two of their children, Wendy and John, play at being their parents. When Mrs. Darling notices Michael is left out, she gets him into the game and joins in with all of them ("1, 2, 3") watched by the dog Nana, their nursemaid. When Mr. Darling comes in to have his tie tied, he questions having a dog as a nursemaid, but Mrs. Darling defends her. The previous week, while the children slept, Nana saw a boy in the room who flew out of the window before she could catch him, leaving behind his shadow, which Mrs. Darling has put away in a drawer. In spite of this, Mr. Darling insists on Nana spending the night downstairs. Mrs. Darling and the children sing a lullaby ("Tender Shepherd").

The children fall asleep. A fairy, Tinker Bell, and Peter Pan fly in through the window to look for his shadow. Wendy is woken up by the boy's cries when he is unable to re-attach his shadow and helps him by sewing it back on. Peter is thrilled when his shadow is re-attached ("I've Gotta Crow") and tells her that he lives in Neverland ("Never Never Land") with the Lost Boys. Wendy wakes her brothers up, and Peter invites them all to Neverland, and promises to teach them to fly. Peter happily launches himself into the air ("I'm Flying").

Peter sprinkles the children with fairy dust and tells them to "think lovely thoughts" ("I'm Flying " Reprise"). The children follow Peter, but Michael goes back when maid Liza comes into the room, giving her some of his fairy dust and inviting her to come to Neverland with them.

Act II

Never Land

Peter's "Lost Boys" are standing outside their underground lair, wondering when he will return, when they hear Captain Hook and his pirates ("Pirate Song"). The boys hide. Hook tells Smee, his right-hand man, that he wants to kill Peter, because he cut off his hand and threw it to a crocodile, which has since then developed a taste for Hook and follows him around. Luckily for Hook, the crocodile has swallowed a clock that ticks and alerts Hook to its presence. Hook accidentally stumbles upon the entrance to the hideout, and summons Smee and his men to provide background music while he plans the Boys' demise ("Hook's Tango"), a rich cake with poisonous icing. Hook suddenly hears a loud tick-tock; the crocodile appears but Hook escapes. The pirates flee, and the Boys reappear, thinking they are safe. Suddenly, a group of "Indians" appears, led by Tiger Lily ("Indians"). They leave the Boys alone, and go on hunting the pirates.

The Lost Boys suddenly spot Wendy in the sky and taking her for a bird, one of them shoots an arrow. Peter, Michael and John land to find the arrow lodged in her heart, although she isn't dead. The Lost Boys build a house around her, hoping that she will become their mother ("Wendy"), to which, when she wakes up, she agrees. Hook plants the cake, but Wendy doesn't let the children eat it as she knows it wouldn't be good for them; instead, she tells the Boys stories. Hook is infuriated that the Boys have found a mother. He plots to kidnap Wendy and the Boys, while Smee and the pirates play a "Tarantella". After the pirates leave for their ship, Liza arrives and dances with the animals of Neverland while Peter keeps watch outside the house.

A few days pass with everyone having adventures. One day in the forest, after Peter leads the Boys in their anthem ("I Won't Grow Up"), they almost run into the pirates, who have captured Tiger Lily and tie her to a tree. Peter hides and mimics Hook's voice, ordering the men to release her. When Hook arrives, he is enraged and demands that the "spirit of the forest" speak to him. Peter tricks them all into thinking he is Hook, and that the real Hook is a codfish. Hook asks the "spirit" to reveal its true identity. Peter obliges, pretending to be a "beautiful lady" ("Oh, My Mysterious Lady") and Hook and his pirates try to ambush Peter, but they are chased away by Tiger Lily and her tribe of Native Americans.

Back at the hideout, Tiger Lily and her tribe are almost shot by the Boys, until Peter reveals the truce between them. They smoke a peace pipe and vow eternal friendship ("Ugg-a-Wugg"). Tiger Lily and her Indians leave to stand guard around the house above. Wendy asks Peter to sing the Boys a lullaby ("Distant Melody"). Michael and John want to return home, and Wendy admits to being homesick, too. The Boys wish they had parents, and Wendy offers hers to all of them. Everyone is excited about being adopted, except Peter, who says he will not go because he knows he will grow up if he does. Wendy tells him she will come back once a year to do his spring cleaning.

The pirates attack and subdue the Indians. They give Peter a fake all-clear signal, so Peter sadly sends Wendy, her brothers, and the Lost Boys on their way. Before she leaves, Wendy sets out Peter's "medicine" for him to take before bed. After she tearfully leaves, Peter, who pretended not to care, throws himself on a bed and cries himself to sleep. As they leave the underground house, Wendy and the boys are captured by the pirates. Hook then sneaks into the lair and poisons Peter's medicine. Tinker Bell awakens Peter, tells him of the ambush, and warns him about the poison, but he waves her off as he prepares for a rescue. Desperate, she drinks the poison herself. Dying, she tells Peter that if every boy and girl who believes in fairies would clap their hands, she would live. Peter asks the audience to believe and clap their hands. They do, and Tinker Bell is saved. Peter grabs his sword and heads off to rescue Wendy and the Boys.

Act III

The Jolly Roger

Hook revels in his success ("Hook's Waltz"). As the plank is prepared, Hook hears the tick-tock of the crocodile and panics. It is actually Peter with a clock, and while Hook cowers Peter and the Boys help the Indians, the animals and Liza onto the ship and hide. Peter hides in a closet and kills two pirates Hook sends in. A third pirate, Starkey, refuses to obey Hook's order to go in and jumps overboard. The pirates then carry the Boys in, and the Boys pretend to be afraid as they are carried in. Peter disguises himself as a pirate, and the pirates think the "doodle-doo" (named so because Peter still crows after killing the pirates) killed all the Boys. Hook believes the ship is now cursed, and everyone thinks Wendy is the source. The pirates push Wendy to the plank. Peter ditches his disguise and the Indians and animals attack, as well as the Boys who are alive and armed. The pirates are all defeated, and Peter challenges Hook to a duel and defeats him. Hook threatens to blow up the ship with a bomb, but runs into the real crocodile (whom Peter also brought on the ship). Peter catches the dropped bomb and tosses it in the sea after Hook slides down the plank (which is shaped like a slide) with the crocodile chasing behind him. As Peter puts his fingers in his ears, the bomb explodes and Hook is either blown to smithereens or is eaten by the crocodile. Everyone sings Peter's praises ("I've Gotta Crow" ). Before the Darling children and everyone goes to London, Liza asks Peter to teach her to crow ("I Gotta Crow" ).

Back home, the Darlings sit by the nursery window night after night, hoping for the return of their children. The children silently reappear and sing to their mother ("Tender Shepherd" ). The Darlings happily agree to adopt the Lost Boys ("We Will Grow Up"). Wendy promises to wait for Peter, hoping that one day he will return for her.

Years pass, and Peter returns to the nursery, surprising a much older Wendy, who no longer expected him. He has come to take her to Neverland for Spring cleaning, but she declines as she is now grown up; married with a daughter of her own, Jane. Peter starts to cry, and Wendy leaves the room at the sound of her husband's offstage voice. Jane awakes and, like her mother before her, asks, "Boy, why are you crying?" Peter introduces himself, but Jane knows all about him from her mother's stories. She has been waiting for him to come take her to Neverland and to learn to fly. Peter, now happy again, throws fairy dust on her, but as they are about to leave, Wendy tries to stop them, saying, "Oh, if only I could go with you!" In the most poignant moment of the show, Peter answers with a sad but understanding smile, "You can't. You see, Wendy ....you're too grown up". And so Wendy reluctantly lets Jane go, "just for Spring cleaning." Her daughter and the "boy who wouldn't grow up" fly off into the night as Wendy watches from the window. ("Finale: Never Never Land ")

((There you have it, lovelies! As always, feel free to post reactions and experiences of the production right here. Respect the setting, and have fun with it!))

This was a part Yasmin was born to play. There was no need for the shapeshifter to appear as any other way than her favored platinum blonde pixie cut young Caucasian woman with big, bold, sky blue eyes. Peter Pan was typically played by women, and the childish demeanor of Peter mirrored her own more often than not. But despite it being the best role she could have ever been cast, it was the hardest one she had done by far. It wasn't the choreography, the lyrics, the singing, the script....It was the acting - her acting....or lack thereof... Wendy, Michael, John, and the Lost Boys exited the stage, to leave Neverland and return home. They wanted Yas, as Peter, to go too, but she refused, never wanting to grow up. Yas defiantly yelled out to them after they left, "Go on, all of you! I don't care..." Abandoned, on stage by herself, she went over to her makeshift bed and plopped down with a disgruntled sigh. Looking angrily to where they exited, she waited, hoping they might have had a change of heart. After a few moments passed and their voices faded out of earshot, her expression of anger turned to one of disappointment, then sadness. She laid back onto the bed, then turned over on to her side facing away from the audience. Her soft weeping could barely be heard as the light illuminating the stage began to dim.

The light remained dimmed for just a few minutes, letting her cries slowly fade away into the night as Peter slept.

Soon, day broke and brought light back into the room, causing her to stir. Yas yawned and stetched out her arms before jumping up out of bed excitedly. As she looked around to play with the Lost Boys, she remembered and her face once again was filled with sadness. Now looking out over the vacant room, she saw her medicine Wendy left out for her on the table. She said softly, going up to the table, "I guess I should take my medicine. Just one last time..." Just as she picked up the bottle, the shimmering light that represented Tinker Bell swarmed onto the stage and danced all over the table and bottle. "Tinker Bell!" Yasmin exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" There was a slight jingling of what almost sounded like miniature wind chimes. Yas added with remorse, "Oh, Tink....I'm so sorry I banished you." Tink chimed in again as she stopped to rest on the table. Yasmin was so grateful to have her there with her now. "You see, everyone's left. There's nothing to do but take my medicine." Tink chimed again in disagreement. "Don't worry, Tink. Wendy left it for me," Yasmin tried to reassure her. As Yas picked up the bottle, Tink jumped on it, and drank. As she did, her light began to dim. Yasmin quickly dropped the bottle, falling to her knees to catch the falling fairy. "Tinker Bell!" Yasmin cried out as she clasped Tinker Bell in her hands. "What happened?" A soft, barely audible chime answered her and she replied, "Captain Hook" He poisoned my medicine?" She continued, understanding now, "Tink! You took it to save me" Oh, Tinker Bell..." Her best friend risked her life to save her's, even after she was cruel enough to cast her out. She looked away from the audience as she began to tear up. "What can I....do....Tink?" Yas asked as she turned back to face Tinker Bell in her hands, her voice wavering. "I'll do anything to save you..." Barely being able to hear her anymore, Yas carefully leaned down to her hands to try to hear her. And she did. Yasmin quickly turned to the audience with tears flooding her eyes. She said, disjointedly, trying to get the words out "Tink says that she....thinks she can get....well again if....children believed in fairies." Still holding on to her friend, she brought one knee up, then the other, as she came to a stand. She asked the audience desperately, "Do you believe?" She gently placed Tinker Bell on the table next to her, then turned back to the audience for help. "If you believe, clap your hands....Don't let Tink die," she begged, caring about her dying friend too much to care if the audience saw her crying anymore, as her tears fell down her face. Yasmin began to clap her hands; a slow, pathetic clap, hoping, praying that the audience would have mercy and help her. A few kind souls in the audience felt pity for her and began to clap softly with her. She looked back to her friend on the table. Her dim light barely flickered with their claps. Turning back to the audience, she said simply, "Please..." It was her who was barely audible now. Little by little, more began to join in. Yasmin collapsed down to her knees again to see Tinker Bell. Her light began to slightly swell with the sounds of clapping. "Yes! That's it!" Yas called out as she looked to the audience. "Look! She's getting better. Louder!" She kept motioning upwards with her hands to encourage them. The house lights slowly turned on to a soft haze. The once painfully vacant and silent room soon livened up, revealing its patrons, and the power in their numbers. The ones clapping looked to the others with disappointed glares causing them, too, to begin clapping in turn. As the clapping grew, so did Tinker Bell's light. Yasmin looked on, this time in happy tears, as Tinker Bell's light shined even brighter than it had before. "Thank you," she said the unscripted line to the audience, though no one heard her over the deafening sound of applause. "Captain Hook will pay for this!" Yas called out to her friend, who began fluttering all over the stage.

"Come on, Tinker Bell! It's Hook or me this time!" Grabbing her sword on the way, Yasmin rushed off, running behind the backstage curtain. Following her, Tinker Bell flew to the back curtain, too, then the light representing the fairy shut off and the lights faded to black to end scene. Each night, Yasmin didn't stop running until she hit her private dressing area, where no one could see her, yet she could still hear the audience's muffled applause. Wiping away tears and deep breathing, she tried to quickly console herself before the next act. "I can't believe me....Pull yourself together....She didn't even die....I mean....It was only a light..."

He furrowed dark brows at her before flicking each gummy bear from his shoulders one at a time, heedless of where they landed. "It is not my fault you insist on bringing your niece to such a preposterous display of lies and fabrication, madam," he replied, with an obviously proper English accent, not unlike that of her future sister-in-law.

Ash stared at him, her lips twitching at the ridiculous answer. "Uh, no," she contradicted him. "This is a public entertainment aimed at families with children. If you continue to disrupt that public entertainment and upset those children, one of whom I am very attached to, I will blacken both those pretty eyes of yours. Is that clearer for you, your majesty?"

"Oh, come now ..." He countered, appealing to her good sense. "You don't really enjoy this rubbish, do you?" he asked, gesturing with one hand toward the stage. Perhaps he was a theater critic or someone who had never encountered the play before. He was obviously alone, without any children accompanying him, which was a bit odd in itself, considering the play was geared toward the younger set, though the original may not have been.

"Whether I'm enjoying it or not doesn't matter," she pointed out. "The children are enjoying it, and you're spoiling it for them with all your huffing and puffing and arguing with it. C'mon, it's not like it's high art or anything. It's a story designed to make children happy. So I reiterate ....stop disrupting it, or I'll get us both thrown out."

"So, you aren't enjoying it then," he said, a devilish grin on his darkly handsome features. He turned a little sideways in his seat so he could speak to her without craning his neck. "Please tell me you don't subscribe to the idea that Pan - a devil in a little boy's body - could actually defeat a man who had been a privateer in the service of the true king" A boy, mind you, who cheats, steals, and lies all so he can remain young. A boy who has no sense of rules or fair play and who cares about nothing and no one but himself. Do you really think he cares about Wendy and her brothers" They are nothing to him but sources of amusement. That is all. And when they decide at last to grow up, how does he react' With disappointment and dismay. What kind of message does that send to children, do you think, Miss ....I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

She stared at him for a long time, not entirely sure how to respond to that. "I didn't say I wasn't enjoying it," she pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Why do I always end up talking to the weirdos" This is why I don't go out ....Anyway, don't you think you're taking it all a little too seriously' It's just a story. And the whole point is that it's Wendy's story, and she accepts that she has to grow up, or she'll be alone, just like that ....Peter Pan."

"Just a story, aye," he replied with a derisive chuckle devoid of humor. "An exaggerated lie is what it is. You would do well to take the child to see Shakespeare, rather than this rubbish. I would suggest A Midsummer Night's Dream. Pan is far more realistically portrayed in that than he is here."

"Well, the character you're talking about is called Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, and he has nothing to do with an eternal child," Ash pointed out in irritation. "Seriously, though ....are you going to behave like an adult, or am I going to have to make a scene so you don't upset any more of the children with your annoying little outbursts?"

"Did you miss the surname of Pan, madame?" he countered, though he didn't really want to get into a literary debate with a stranger, even if she was a pretty one. "You do realize the play is designed to poke fun at adults and social mores, yes" It was written with this in mind, though where Barrie derived his inspiration is something I am still sorting out." It seemed he was having trouble himself sorting the fiction from the fact, though in Rhy'Din, it was mostly a matter of perspective. Anything was possible.

"That's what public entertainment is for, especially when it's a comedy," she pointed out, frowning at him. "You really are taking it way too seriously. Why come to this show if you're so determined to be a miser and ruin it for everyone sitting around you?"

"I, for one, do not enjoy seeing myself portrayed on stage as a ....a buffoon, madame," he said, blue eyes flashing with some inner rage, like a storm at sea. "Now, if you will excuse me." He pushed his tall frame to his feet, and started down the row, though where he was going was uncertain.

It took a moment for her to realize what he'd said, by which time he was already a couple of seats down the row. "Hold on ....what? What do you mean, yourself""

"I do not recall stuttering," he retorted, a dark look on his face as he continued on down the row. Thankfully, most of the seats were empty as parents were rushing children to the bathroom and for goodies before intermission ended. "And the fact that a boy is playing me. A boy, mind you. Still wet behind the ears."

"Where are you going?" she demanded, not entirely sure why she cared. Okay, so he was cute. More than cute, actually. Gorgeous, in fact. Focus. "That boy got married last month. And he's got an amazing voice. Personally, I think he's a fantastic Captain Hook."

"The play is entirely miscast," he said, ignoring her now as he started on down the aisle. Instead of heading away from the stage to the exit or rest rooms, he was heading very purposely and determinedly toward the stage. "Someone needs to put a stop to this nonsense," he muttered as he made his way forward.

Of course, he wasn't going to get anywhere even if he did get up onto the stage - the safety curtain was down, two tonnes of sheet metal, designed to prevent a fire from bridging the gap between the auditorium and the stage area. Ash knew that, so why was she getting up to follow him' Families were starting to file back into the auditorium, but there was a good ten minutes left before curtain up again. "You know, if you try and go up there, they'll have you arrested."

"For what?" he asked, not slowing his stride. She'd have to hurry if she wanted to keep up with him. "For setting things straight' For telling the truth?" He didn't seem to understand at that moment that to the children and their families gathered here, it was only a story - a few hours' entertainment, nothing more.

"For ....Look, will you just stop?" Already annoyed with herself for bothering at all, Ash was not exactly gentle as she gripped his sleeve, sticking one booted foot directly in front of his to trip him or at least make him stumble so he wouldn't persist in making an idiot of himself. "So you're Captain Hook, right' The real Captain Hook" And after an hour of all these people watching a story that makes you out to be a villain, a completely untrustworthy and unreliable character, you are now going to totally destroy their evening's entertainment. And you think that will help your reputation?" She looked at him as though he was crazy. "Have you been paying any attention to these people" Hook is one of the characters everyone likes and remembers clearly. How is that a bad thing?"

If she wanted to stop him from going any further, she accomplished that, as he stumbled over her foot and got caught in her grip, blue eyes blazing with anger and maybe a little something else. Injustice, pain, shame, and a myriad of other feelings all caught up in his anger. He did not deny her accusation, his jaw clenching angrily as he at least heard her out. None of this was her fault, after all. The fault belonged to someone else. "Remembered for what?" he asked, the anger fading into something more akin to pain. "Not for his courage or loyalty, certainly. Only remembered for being made a fool of by a boy so selfish he'd sell his own soul to the devil to prevent himself from ever growing up. Is that the hero you would have the children know and love?"

Ash looked into those startlingly blue eyes of his, and sighed softly. "If you want people to know the truth, believe me, this is not the way to do it," she told him. "Everyone here but you, they came to see a story, something that they know is fiction but is entertaining for a few hours. It's an escape from real life, it's a bit of magic for the children to enjoy that isn't going to blow up in their faces. You'll make nothing but enemies if you try and stop the show, trust me. And my name's Ashlyn, if you still care."

He said nothing for a long moment, but only stared at her, as if he was seriously weighing her words. She was pretty, that much was certain, and it had been a long, long time since he'd spent more than a few minutes talking to a woman. "James," he said, extending his right hand as if it was a peace offering.

She relaxed as he seemed to take her point, slipping her hand into his to squeeze gently. "So ....are you gonna behave yourself for the second act, James?" she asked with a hint of a smirk. "Or should we find somewhere a little less disruptive to sit so you can brood over something that was made for people to enjoy?"

"No," he replied, looking around him a moment, as if just realizing where he was and what he'd been about to do. Children were starting to file back into the theater with their parents in anticipation of the show's second half, and despite his reputation to the contrary, he was actually rather fond of children. "I've seen enough. I already know how it ends."