Some (cultural) journeys take far longer than envisioned.  Take the one undertaken by the members of the Mischief Theater Company who premiered their comic parody Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Pleasance Theatre in London in December 2013, and who are only just now about to bring it to Broadway.

The premise of this critically and commercially acclaimed play  is that the actors and crews are members of the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society presenting their production of the J. M. Barrie classic 1904 play Peter Pan, and ruin it through amateurism and personal rivalries.

As they attempt to tell the story of Wendy and Peter’s adventures in Neverland, everything that can go wrong does.  Peter struggles to get to grips with flying, Tinker Bell electrocutes herself on her Christmas light-adorned dress and a  ridiculously clumsy Tootles breaks every bone in her body. The entire cast of ten, who rarely stop falling, bumping, tripping, slipping or bouncing off things, are truly impressive. And the play itself all makes for every understudy’s dream.

It appears that some of the slap stick comedy is actually based on real events from some of the perennial productions over the decades. E.G. when Gladys Cooper played Peter Pan in the 1920s, she had rows with the stagehands, who took their revenge during the flying sequences by bouncing her off the scenery like a wrecking ball! 

The quintessential British hilarious comedy is from the people, who had such an award-winning runaway success with The Play That Goes Wrong.

The play was adapted into a one-hour television special that was broadcast on 31 December 2016 on BBC One,  and now can be streamed FREE on Youtube

Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Barrymore Theatre
243 West 47th Street
Between Broadway and 8th Avenue
New York NY 10036