‘The Lost Boy,’ an original musical, will offer a new take on Peter Pan
The prince of boyhood returns! This August, “The Lost Boy,” an original musical by Peter Searby, director of the Riverside Club for Adventure and Imagination, makes its debut on the Wheaton Academy stage.
Tinker Bell, Captain Hook, and Smee are back, but the Darling is Wendy’s granddaughter, Angela, who inhabits the famous London bedroom during the dark times of the Blitz.
She knows all the stories of Neverland and desperately wants to head toward the second star to the right and travel straight until morning, Peter Pan doesn’t come to whisk her away.
Peter is lost both literally and figuratively, trapped in a world tarnished by a great war. He was devastated by the betrayal of his best friend, Vaughn, who had committed the biggest sin: he had begun to grow up.
Just as in J.M. Barrie’s original play, growing up is strictly “against the rules,” and when boys insist on doing this, Peter “thins them out.”
Searby interprets this as a banishment from the only home and family they have known. Without seeing an alternative path to manhood, Vaughn and others feel there is no way out other than to become pirates — certifiable enemies of Peter Pan.
When Angela and Tink find Peter, he must in turn find himself; he has to examine his past mistakes and determine whether he can be who he is — the boy who never grows up — while at the same time helping those around him figure out how to become honorable men.
“The Lost Boy” is Searby’s 10th original musical; in addition to the book, he also writes all of the music, both lyrics and score. Searby’s organization, the Riverside Club focuses on fostering the imagination. However, unlike the Lost Boys who feel abandoned by Peter Pan in the musical, Riverside offers guidance in understanding many principles of life, including how to treat others and the importance of working hard and with purpose.
The production will be at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Aug. 1-2, and 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, in the Wheaton Academy Fine Arts Center, 900 Prince Crossing Road in West Chicago. Friday is “Dress Like a Pirate Night.”
Tickets for Thursday’s show are $8. Tickets for Friday or Saturday shows are $12 for age 15 or older or $10 for ages 5-14 or 60 or older. Ages 4 or younger are free if seated on the lap of an adult.
Tickets are available at www.rside.org/lostboy.
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