The Advanced Drama class performance of “Peter and the Starcatcher“ creates a backstory for one of Disney’s most prominent characters, Peter Pan. Ironically, many think of Peter Pan as the boy who doesn’t grow up; however, this Peter manages to do a lot of growing up in the short manner of two hours. Through humorous lines and likeable characters, the Advanced Drama Class truly brings the audience back to Neverland.

Warning, there may be spoilers in this review.  

The play “Peter and the Starcatcher” is based on a book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson that captivates the audience with a plot from 1885 and follows the courses of two sailing ships, The Neverland and The Wasp. As the story grows, villainous pirates are in pursuit of a treasure chest, that belongs to the Queen, that’s on one of the ships. Unfortunately, they failed to pick the right ship and thus begins the plot. With the help of orphans and one very special young girl, the treasure chest has a chance to escape the clutches of the truly dreadful Captain Black Stache.

In this play, there’s a lot of humor, thanks to the bad guy: Black Stache, a flamboyant pirate played by the senior Carlos Lopez. At many times throughout the play, the audience, as well as myself, found themselves laughing due to the erratic Black Stache’s personality and plethora of  lines. Oddly enough, I can recall Black Stache breaking the fourth wall and making the audience laugh while doing so. Black Stache isn’t as fearsome as he thinks he is, but that’s part of the joke. Furthermore, his band of wimpy pirates act as the main function in providing the illusion that we really are on the dreadful seas. Unfortunately, due to those band of pirates as well as Black Stache, the play never feels too real for better or worse.  Despite the way he loses his hand, all in all, I really enjoyed seeing his character’s backstory to before he became Captain Hook. In my opinion, actor Carlos Lopez managed to portray Captain Black Stache very well.

The main protector of the Queen’s chest is a young girl named Molly, played by Junior Tais Avila. Rather than be the damsel in distress, Molly Aster portrays the lopsided heroine in this play. 13-year old Molly, who easily has over half the lines in the show, speaks fluent Dodo, a secret language known only to the now extinct birds and a few humans. Not to mention she also uses Norse code, Morse code but developed by the Norwegian Vikings. Furthermore, Molly has a very kind personality which further helps move the story along. Pretty early on in the play, it is self-evident that she holds herself to a higher standard and has a high level of intellect, with multiple lines about “being a woman” and “girls can dream too”. These traits assist the audience in connecting with her purity and make the ending of her story even more surprising. Personally, I never saw the revelations that Molly was the mother of Wendy, the main heroine of Disney’s adaptation of “Peter Pan”.

It wouldn’t be a Peter Pan story without leaps of imagination, and “Peter and the Starcatchers” supplies plenty of fresh fantasy. Three orphans: the boy, Prentiss, and Ted give the play a sense of sentimental value; the boy particularly. The boy, who was orphaned at such a young age that he lacks a name, quickly grows to become the love interest of Molly Aster. As the cliche story goes, the boy has been hurt so many times that he is scared to trust anyone, that is until he meets Molly. It was actually Captain Black Stache, who names him Peter and the mermaid named “Teacher” who gives him the last name of Pan. Without a doubt, Peter Pan experiences the most character development out of all the other characters. Furthermore, Daniel Luna makes a convincing lost boy and does a surreal job of captivating the crowd for a whole 2 hours.

I want to take this moment to congratulate the Advanced Drama Class on their performance of “Peter and the Starcatcher.” All and all, the performance of the Advanced Drama Class was a magical show, full of fun, and fantasy. It is self-evident that all the actors, both onstage and backstage, have dedicated multiple hours and tireless amounts of work into making this production the spectacle is was. Furthermore, the Sewing Circle’s costumes looked amazing and were well made. Despite the repetitive British jokes and childish humor, not to the fault of the actors, this play was spectacular. Although, I must confess I will never look at a line of mermaids the same way again. To conclude, my official rating would be nine out of ten starstuff.