Peter Pan at Greenwich Theatre, London Review
Written by Greta for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
London, present day. Wendy, the great grand-daughter of Wendy Darling - the fearless adventurer who even got to meet Peter Pan and fly to Neverland - works at a car wash, disappointed in her adventure-less life. She treasures the necklace her great grandmother has given her, adorned with a kiss. When the necklace is taken from her, Peter Pan is alerted and comes to the rescue.
This is the premise of Peter Pan: A New Pantomime Adventure, currently playing at the Greenwich Theatre. In addition to Wendy and Peter, we reunite with more characters from the original novel such as Hook - dramatic, camp, and terrified of aging -, Smee - his second in command, scatterbrained and outrageous -, and Tinkerbell - who expresses her sassiness through Gen-Z slang.
Running at two hours and twenty minutes, this production unfortunately fails to take flight. The song selection is inconsistent, and the pop culture references feel shoe-horned into the script. What’s missing is a coherent creative vision to tie all the bits together; while some sections, like the videogame-inspired car journey to the Fountain of Youth, have merit, they don’t land as powerfully as they could with a proper framework.
One of my main grievances was the way the songs were incorporated into the show; most of the lyrics were left unchanged, with some little amends but no robust rewriting to give them new life and meaning. Even great ideas, like Tinkerbell singing Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild while talking about Peter, get damaged by the lyrics not matching the new setting accordingly; in this particular case, the lyrics were changed from “won’t you let an innocent woman be?” to “won’t you let an innocent fairy be?”, but bits like Peter Pan having a broken phone which he’s forgotten to charge were left untouched. The same happens in Smee and Starkey’s face off on the notes of Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better); the song has the potential to appeal to different age ranges, but the original lyrics don’t capture the specificity of this particular fight, making the number less memorable. Why should Smee and Starkey compete over who sings softer, when they could provoke each other with challenges such as “every bone you can break, I can break faster”?
Other segments, like the feast scene, try to be funny but end up feeling like awkward advertising. The dirty jokes for the adults are monothematic, and generally the show feels targeted to very small children. The plot moves very slowly; the sections focusing on the pirates tend to be funnier, while the scenes with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are somewhat dull and don’t retain the thrill and sense of wonder of the original.
What’s really disappointing here is the waste of potential: with a grand music-hall setting, a decent budget, and talented cast, Peter Pan: A New Pantomime Adventure clearly has the means to deliver something magical, but falls short. There are some moments in which the resources at its disposal are used nicely and achieve great effect; however, these are too sparse to truly emerge.
There are some relevant redeeming features; Anthony Spargo, the writer of the show who also plays Hook, delivers a hilarious performance as the eccentric Captain, with plenty of cheeky asides and improv. Nikita Johal, energetic and convincing, embodies a charming Wendy (despite her narrative arc being undercooked and ultimately unearned). The set design (Emily Bestow) and special effects are smart and impactful, if slightly ill-timed, and the work of the set builders and scenic artists is commendable. The look of the production is colourful and inviting.
What I didn’t get from Peter Pan: A New Pantomime Adventure were the sheer imagination and heart that are usually at the core of pantos; the writing is not the strongest, and the directing isn’t focused enough. My experience, though amiable, was cheapened by a sense of underwhelm and randomness. Even the audience interactions were a bit disappointing and risked becoming tedious, despite vocal powerhouse Louise Cielecki (Smee) doing some fabulous work in keeping everything entertaining. I expected more from the award-winning team behind the production.
Plays at Greenwich Theatre until 11 January 2026.
★ ★
