Peter Pan, Lost Boys and Captain Hook come alive on Warner Robins stage

Ever wonder how the story about Peter Pan, Captain Hook and the Lost Boys came to be? “Peter and the Starcatcher” will answer this question and more on the Warner Robins Little Theatre stage starting Friday.

Written by playwright Rick Elice, the play is based on a series of young adult novels by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and gives the background story of the origins of Peter Pan, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook and Neverland, according to Michael Castle, who is directing the play for WRLT.

The family-friendly show portrays more than 100 roles with 18 actors between the ages of 11 and mid-50s bringing these characters to life. Castle said the first time he read the play, he had to stop reading about 15 pages into it because he was laughing so hard. Consequently, he immediately knew it was the play he wanted to do.

Although the play is not necessarily a musical, it does have two songs, “Mermaid Outta Me” and “Swim On.”

“There are snippets of songs ... the characters are singing in the characters they are ... seaman, sailors and pirates,” said Castle, explaining that it’s very funny and entertaining to watch.

In the play, Lord Aster (David Kelley) and his young daughter Molly (Lizzy McCullers), an assistant starcatcher, have been tasked by the queen to take a trunk full of star stuff — material from shooting stars — to be destroyed. They travel to Rundoon to destroy the material by the world’s hottest volcano, Mount Jalapeno. On the way, their ships are taken over by pirates.

A no-name orphan, who will become Peter Pan, makes the ships crash into one another, casting them ashore on a seemingly deserted island, which is actually populated by the Mollusk Tribe. This tribe is led by Fighting Prawn (Tim Mabry), who feeds anyone who lands on his island to a crocodile. According to Castle, the play ends with Peter finding his power and being left behind with the Lost Boys on Neverland, aka Mollusk Island.

Lizzy McCullers, 22, from Macon, who plays the part of Molly Aster, said the script is “ just so clever and hilarious” with a “joke for everyone.”

“We’ve got physical humor, puns, satire, everything,” she said. “Every member of your family can find something to laugh at.”

There is lots of low tech with the set and actors and low tech assistance, explained Castle.

“We are going to levitate girls on stage … cats will be flying, trunks will be glowing and salmon will be transformed into mermaids. The starcatcher characters, Molly and Lord Aster, will be speaking Dodo and Porpoise and using an ancient Viking signaling system called Norse Code,” he said.

“It’s so fun to see how each bit of magic is accomplished,” said McCullers.

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Peter Pan, Lost Boys and Captain Hook come alive on Warner Robins stage."