For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (165)
See it if You are loyal to Playwrights and/or a fan of Ruhl, this playwright. You like family dramedy, political banter, or existential pondering.
Don't see it if You are looking for a lively night at the theatre -- this show drags and doesn't really deliver.
See it if You love Kathleen Chalfant - she is always a joy in any role
Don't see it if You will disappointed by a concept that is interesting in theory but doesn't work in execution.
See it if You want to see something that should be ALOT better. Sarah Ruhl, really??? You would think she could do better.
Don't see it if You have to pay full price.
See it if you are a fan of family dramas. A family comes together over tragedy & fights/reminisces. The first half was ok, then the fantasy starts
Don't see it if you are just looking for the Peter Pan aspect. That section is only about 20 minutes long. This show was maybe marketed incorrectly...?
See it if you want to see a new take on a coming of age story; you love everything about Peter Pan
Don't see it if you don't want to watch the theme of not growing up repeated over and over for 90 minutes; you want a play with a solid conclusion
See it if You want to see a wonderful childhood story with most of the magic taken out. You can sit through an excruciating long death bed scene.
Don't see it if You want your childhood memories of Peter Pan to remain intact. You don't want to struggle to put the pieces of a disjointed story together.
See it if You want to see everything
Don't see it if If you want something that has depth and is a good idea pursued with characters that you care about and is edited
See it if you are a big Kathleen Chalfant and/or Sarah Ruhl fan.
Don't see it if you dislike talky plays.
Critic Reviews (46)
“This play is a gift of opportunity to all of us to ponder the occurrences in life that we cannot turn back from…Les Waters directs an amazing ensemble cast…The script gives insight to each of their varied perspectives. It is a tender and intimate story…Each member of the cast builds distinctive characters who unite during this solemn occasion to face the challenges and the changes ahead…It is Sarah Ruhl’s most personal play, and is touching on many levels.”
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"Collapses almost from the very beginning...After a while all of the talk becomes unnecessary babble leading nowhere. We really learn nothing about the family...Suddenly the play takes a new detour and we are in Neverland. Here things go completely off-kilter and become quite foolish...Despite the smooth direction and the dedicated performances, the play remains stagnant, never shedding new light on much."
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"Ruhl's plays rarely disappoint. Her newest is no exception...The range runs wildly from humorous recollections, to long held resentments, to confusions about their parents. This is the stuff of every family, but it is done well and we believe every speech, and the actors are so suited to their characters that it is as if we are eavesdropping on an actual family...This play is well imagined and helmed by director Les Waters...Ruhl mixes an excellent concoction."
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"No amount of pixie dust can make this emotionally laden 'Peter Pan' take flight...The obviously gifted Ruhl overloads her quiver with tried-and-true tropes and takes aim at society’s everyday foibles, the structure of family, all the stages of death and dying, and the truths of how we can be our own worst enemies, but she ends up missing all the marks by half...At times a tedious mix of misfires and missed opportunities and yet at others one can almost see the distant shores of Neverland."
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“Death and youth are common themes to work with, and Ruhl handles them with expert ease...The cast is phenomenal, but standout performances by Chalfant and Chandler give the show heart and humor…Les Waters’ direction hits home most of the time, though a few moments drag on. I’m all for a pregnant pause, but don’t put me to sleep…If you’re a fan of Peter Pan, you’ll enjoy this show. If not, you’ll still enjoy this show. But either way, you can’t deny the profound message it elicits."
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"An intriguing if uneven new work from Sarah Ruhl. Tenderly directed by her longtime collaborator Les Waters, ‘Peter’ is a surreal 90-minute reverie that’s wistful, beautiful and perplexing, not unlike life…And yet ‘Peter’ never quite takes wing theatrically. To be sure, it’s only because Ruhl is such a genius that ‘Pan’ disappoints…All of the actors deliver nuanced turns, but Chalfant dusts this production with fairy magic…For all its fanciful charms, however, the piece remains confounding."
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“‘For Peter Pan’ never lives up to its potential, and the journey Ruhl charts from the hospital room to Neverland is more of a slog...Throughout all this, Ruhl injects enough stage magic into the proceedings to establish the possibility for one of her wondrous transitions out of the banal and into the otherworldly…Yet Ruhl splices in those tropes arbitrarily, lazily — as if the fact that the metaphor is obvious means she needn’t give it shape.”
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“In what feels like the strongest of the play's three scenes, the siblings ruminate on death, the afterlife, and what it means to really be an adult...The remaining two scenes are less impressive…Chalfant leads a strong cast as a sympathetic and engaging Ann…Les Waters directs with a sure eye for both the comedy and drama in the script, but even so ‘For Peter Pan’ is a bit too specifically autobiographical for its own good. It feels less like a play for a general audience than a home video.”
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