Passable Hook for a passable Pan

Peter Pan: thumbs up for Henry Winkler's Captain Hook
10 April 2012

You can't do a double thumbs-up with a hook on your arm. Henry Winkler insists in his programme biog that the Fonz is "history" but no doubt the mums and dads last night would have given up their interval ice-cream to see him lift his comb to his hair, then complacently put it back again.

What they got was a passable Captain Hook done with a relaxed dose of Hollywood charisma. This is a passable Pan too which, after a slow start, eventually gets the kids roaring and does just enough to keep the adults entertained. JM Barrie's story always makes for uneasy panto fare - there's no dame part, and the strange, dark sentimentality that surrounds the title character is at odds with the genre.

So it is here. This show is best when the music is playing. A selection of hits known and lesser known gives musical theatre fans some fun spotting tunes. There's one from the stage-show (not the film) of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and even a little bit of Sondheim - a sensitively sung reworking to comfort Wendy at the mermaids' rock.

Elsewhere Queen, Europe and Survivor satisfy soft-rockers, and a Fifties-style medley winks to us of Winkler's past.

The acting is less assured and things have gone wrong with the lead pair. Sarah Jane Honeywell flies beautifully, but has none of Pan's uncaring derring-do.

Baby-voiced and inane, this boy stopped growing up at four. Classic lines like "To die would be an awfully big adventure" don't come naturally.

If Peter is too young, his woman seems very adult, and it's a strange combination. I last saw Susie Anton play an incestuous fruitcake in a Fringe play, and was surprised to see her employing the same jerky, frenetic manner as Wendy. More than usually interested in Peter, she looks like growing into one of those girls every mother fears, a sex-mad mentalist with wide-eyed charm and clingy tendencies.

Winkler gets some straight man material, some threats to throw at the audience and one very strange speech towards the end. It leaves Bobby Davro's Smee with all the comedy work, and he is a pro. The most appalling material hits home more than it should.

Some mean ad-libs when things go less well lose audience favour from time to time, but his Twelve Days of Christmas had me roaring - a rare moment of sublime release in a somewhat stodgy evening.

Until 14 January (0870 060 6646)
www.theambassadors.com/newwimbledon

Peter Pan
New Wimbledon Theatre
The Broadway, SW19 1QG

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