Peter Pan-to

Funding Neverland

Peter Pan-to

by Megan Good, Owen Thomas James, Roger Blitz, and Tim Iredale

Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre, until 21^st December

Review by Andrew Lawston

They make plenty of jokes about their budget, but Putney Theatre Company have pulled out the stops for their panto this year for Peter Pan-to, with a huge cast, a small but powerful live band on stage, and colourful costumes galore.

In Kensington, Wendy, John, and Michael Darling meet Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. He breaks into their bedroom brandishing a potato peeler, in search of his misplaced shadow. With the help of Peter’s best friend Tinkerbell, the children follow him back to Neverland for a couple of hours of festive adventure with pirates, mermaids, and Peter’s own gang, the Lost Boys.

The broad gist of J. M. Barrie’s tale becomes an entertaining pantomime romp from writers Megan Good (also co-directing with Ian Wainwright), Owen Thomas James, Roger Blitz, and Tim Iredale. The children’s mother is reimagined as a widow, and so David Lemkin commands the stage as Mary Darling in time-honoured pantomime dame fashion. In doing so, Mary incurs the displeasure of the Narrator, Georgia Watson-Blythe, who gives occasional updates on the plot in charming rhyming couplets. Watson-Blythe later gets to have even more fun doubling up in a smooth performance as the strangely charismatic Crocodile.

The Darling children are wonderfully cast. Ella Yasumoto plays Wendy as bossy yet vulnerable, and has a great singing voice during the occasional musical numbers, most of which have had their lyrics adapted for the show. Alexa Adam plays John Darling as a spirited lad, and her performance has more than a dash of Anna Maxwell Martin about it. And four-year-old Michael is played by Richard Seedhouse, who I suspect may be stretching his playing age somewhat. Richard’s towering figure and powerful voice, clutching a small teddy bear and wearing brilliant dinosaur pyjamas, make for an inspired character, and the audience clearly adores him.

Emily Robbins is suitably plucky and mercurial as Peter Pan, and forms a great double act with Ainhoa Mounier’s wonderfully sassy and glittery Tinkerbell. Tink’s jealousy of Wendy and resentment of the Darling children is foregrounded from the outset, but her reconciliation with Wendy is a lovely moment, as they realise they have to work together to rescue the boys from their own nonsense.

Once the characters travel to Neverland, partly depicted through flying puppets that get their intended laugh but are really quite charming, the cast expands further. We meet a gang of pirates: Skylights, Bill Jukes, Mullins, Wibbles, and Mr Smee (Millie Gladstone, Nora Holman, Cayley Rae, Kelsey Norris, and Emily Fellows respectively), who live in half-hearted fear of their employer, Captain Hook, played with aplomb and indeed panache by Robert Wallis, in a tremendous tricorn hat. The pirates are a fun gang, and even their non-speaking members get great costumes and plenty to do (Christopher Routledge, and John Pyle, who returns to the stage after his brief stint as grandfather George Darling). At times, the audience aren’t quite sure whether to boo or to cheer them.

The Lost Boys: Rightly, Knightly, Tightly, Slightly, and Frightly (Sophie Brown, Kimberly Ellis, El Cooke, Eve Newton, and Emily Ranson respectively) are the final characters to be introduced in a packed first half, and like the pirates, each has a distinct character and costume, reinforcing the idea that children have been flying to Neverland with Peter Pan for centuries.

The script is full of wonderfully terrible jokes, some pitched for the children, and others aimed at the older members of the audience. Music is provided by Musical Director Nicole Pavlou, on stage with the small band including Harry Pavlou on bass and keys, Richard Campbell on keys, Perry Kitchen on bass, and Simon Herd on guitar. From sound effects to rimshots to full versions of Taylor Swift and Shania Twain songs, the band expertly fill the auditorium with a huge sound, to the point where the cast sometimes have trouble making their vocals heard.

From Mary’s multiple costume changes to the diverse look for each of the pirate crew and the Lost Boys, the wardrobe team have had their work cut out. The costumes are a triumph from Megan Good, Kirsten Millar, and Alexa Adam, and while Ian Wainwright and Barney Hart Dyke’s set is relatively minimalist with a raised area at the back, and two flats, all of which are redressed according to the scene, and a map of Neverland rolled out flat on the stage, it is effective. The action runs smoothly throughout, with an occasional short scene in front of the curtains while the scenery is shifted.

This opening night sees a few technical jitters, as the lighting desk appears to run through every cue in the show at one point in the opening scene, and microphones drop in and out during some of the musical numbers. Sadly the juvenile cast of Lost Boys aren’t present, presumably because it’s a school night, but Peter Pan-to is an ambitious show that provides a wonderful evening’s entertainment and a perfect start to the festive season.

Andrew Lawston, December 2025

Photography by Steve Lippitt