Chances are that if you’re the least bit familiar with theater history, the name Cathy Rigby will mean a lot. She is most famous for playing the role of Peter Pan for over 3,000 performances, leading to a distinction that has followed her for decades. By this point in 2025, the question becomes what she could possibly do to make Peter Pan feel new to audiences who have seen it all. Well, the good news is that she has found a way, or… kind of. She is in a new production of everyone’s favorite boy who never grew up. Given how things are going any given night, there may not be a chance to even see tomorrow.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is the latest in a series of comedic shows by the team behind The Play That Goes Wrong. Following a successful staging during the previous season, La Mirada Theater has taken to doing their next show that adapts J.M. Barrie’s text with reckless aplomb. From the minute a stage director runs down the guidelines for the night, the audience is on edge. Stage lights fall from the sky. Actors costumed as dogs get stuck in doors. Whole backdrops are seemingly ripped in half or set on fire. Nothing goes right, save for the fact it eventually concludes without having to call a fire truck.
The show has embraced a modern example of meta comedy where the fourth wall is constantly broken, gleefully poking fun at the construction of a show. Recurring gags include actors who need stage directions read over headphones, an increasingly injured and anti-social supporting role, and recording tapes that detail a sordid affair behind the scenes. By the end, everything flies into a frenzy, and it’s a miracle that everyone gets out unscathed. It’s to the cast’s credit that they produce a disastrous show full of strenuous activity that feels seamless. The rotating stage looks to be as exhausting as an exercise course. The fact that they do it without ever losing their breath is a sight to behold.
At the center is, of course, Rigby, who has moved aside from the more belabored effort in favor of the more relaxed narrator role. Her assignment requires her to do nothing more than read some of the fairytale from a book while throwing glitter in the air. Much like the setting before her, it goes wrong early and often. The chair becomes sentient and ruins her night, causing another conflict to emerge before proudly shouting the familiar Marie Kondo saying, “You don’t bring me joy!” Despite being the grounded voice of reason, she’s just as lost a everybody else, barely holding together as actors begin to hang from the ceiling while bumping into scenery.
A review would do a disservice to what Peter Pan Goes Wrong does incredibly well. Despite calling it a constant failure, this should be read as praise. It’s the type of acrobatic comedy that requires patience and timing to land the desired effect. By pulling back the comfort of fantasy, the show has created a difficult go for itself where it needs to constantly reinvent its potential, and does so with an impressive focus. Every pratfall is timed to the second. The few improvisational lines add enough seasoning to keep things fresh. What it lacks in high art, it more than makes up for in learning to appreciate the base-level appreciation for laughter.
Peter Pan may go wrong, but it’s not in any way that wastes the audience’s time. It’s a night that revels in the absurd, where those tired of orchestrated set pieces can appreciate things as simple as falling over or having to rely on cheap alternative props. Even with its flaws, everything comes together and leaves everybody clapping with a smile on their face. In a dark time where everything feels out of step, it’s nice to see a version of the same idea done intentionally, realizing that there’s art in embracing carelessness. It may not be the most measured production that Rigby has been involved with, but at least it makes for what’s sure to be one of the most unique and must-see runs of the show in its history.
Comments
Post a Comment