Peter Pan Goes Wrong review: Bradley Whitford and Mischief make merry in hilarious farce

All you need is faith, trust, and fairy dust. And in the case of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, a little mayhem.

The latest play from London based theatrical company Mischief, Peter Pan Goes Wrong comes direct from its spring Broadway run to Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre, courtesy of Center Theatre Group. Like original Mischief hit The Play that Goes Wrong, the show takes a community production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and turns it into a madcap farce as Peter Pan (Greg Tannahill) crashes into walls, Tinkerbell (Nancy Zamit) is electrocuted, and dog Nana (Henry Lewis) gets stuck in a door amidst other hilarity and disaster.

The company pulls double duty, playing both fictional members of the Cornley Theatre and roles in the Cornley production of Peter Pan. There's also a narrator, played currently by The West Wing's Bradley Whitford, with Lost's Daniel Dae Kim set to take over Aug. 30.

Whitford, a CTG veteran and star of their luminous A Christmas Carol, brings that extra touch of pixie dust (and heaps of glittery confetti) to the proceedings. He plays a heightened version of himself, caught on a hot mic backstage bragging about his Emmy Awards (which then make several hilarious appearances on stage) and growing increasingly exasperated with the technical shortcomings of the show within the show. There's a surprising amount of physical business for a role that is designed for a rotating bevy of starry names, including a few choice pratfalls — and Whitford approaches them with gusto.

He also adds timely nods to the ongoing Hollywood strikes, including a turntable reveal of him holding a SAG-AFTRA picket sign and a one-liner about the producers returning to the negotiating table that drew uproarious laughter from the Los Angeles crowd. It's a remarkable illustration of how flexible the narrative structures of Mischief productions are, allowing for jokes specific to region and actor to organically mix with the action.

The rest of the players, most of whom have come straight from the Broadway production which ended its run in July, are geniuses of physical comedy. Many of the "accidents" they suffer are truly terrifying, from collapsing bunk beds to falling pieces of scenery to impressive falls' and they require extreme precision and care. Adam Meggido's direction delivers this, allowing the cast to believably enact these scenarios in ways that tread the line between hilarity and fear for the actors' well-being. It's impossible to overstate the level of planning, rehearsal, and alertness required from both cast and crew to deliver physical comedy at this pitch safely — and the entire company does it so nimbly that you scarcely have time to consider that fact.

This is all aided by the brilliant set design of Simon Scullion, who has created a charming rendering of the Darlings' bedroom, the London night-sky, and Neverland that also has the capacity to transform into a death trap at any moment. Its turntable wizardry strains the credulity of this fictional community theater's budget, but who cares when it's so gorgeous to look at.

It's challenging to single any one member of the cast out, as this is such an ensemble piece. But special due goes to Nancy Zamit, Matthew Cavendish, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. Zamit handles dizzying quick changes with aplomb. Though she ultimately has fewer lines than many as Tinkerbell, her physical comedy speaks loudest in its go-for-broke, vanity-free approach. The way the play reimagines the iconic "clap if you believe in fairies" moment is riotously clever. Cavendish is utterly charming as the besotted Max (who plays Michael and the Crocodile), winsome in his desire to make good, while Sayer steals scenes as Dennis, an actor who must wear a headset because he can't remember a single piece of dialogue.

Shields is the glue holding the whole thing together. His Chris Bean is the show's director as well as its Hook, and his portrayal of a man slowly unraveling alongside the set around him is pitched at a simmering degree of hysteria that boils over as he sports the curly wig, mustache, and hook of one villainous captain. While the rest of the players take each mishap with relative "show must go on" energy, Shields gives us a portrait of a man whose theatrical pretensions aren't enough to stop the play from literally crashing down around him. His tragedy is our comedic fodder, and a second act sequence where he goes off the map in his back-and-forth with the audience is a master class in breaking the fourth wall.

There are some moments that over-egg the comedy. The cast clearly relish the laughs they receive and that can lead to drawing out a bit for too long, the joke growing threadbare before its finished. But these are minor quibbles in a play that takes the magic of the theater and subverts it into farcical disaster.

Backstage hijinks are nothing new (see: Noises Off), but the Mischief company continually finds ways to raise the bar, reminding us that in the best of cases, a night at the theater can be an awfully big adventure. Grade: B+

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