[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of “Wendy, My Darling. An Indie Rock Musical” starring April Wish featuring video appearances by Jon Cryer and Busy Philipps plays April 27 and May 4 at Whitefire Theatre.
Billed as the untold story of Peter Pan, “Wendy, My Darling” is the quintessential retort to the question, ‘whatever happened to Wendy?’
This particular Wendy is the daughter of the original Wendy and is in a panic as her own daughter, another Wendy, has not yet returned from her own first encounter with Peter. She’s worried that either she won’t come back at all, or she will return broken hearted…just as she herself did once and her mother before her.
Why is the story of ‘Peter and Wendy’ always remembered to be mainly about Peter? Often Wendy is a side note, it’s all Peter Pan and no Wendy. Yet Wendy is the real hero of the story. She rescues everyone. She looks after the Lost Boys, she out smarts Tinker Bell, the mermaids, defeats Captain Hook, and teaches them all about love. So you can imagine how annoyed she would be when she got home and found out that all anyone would ever talk about for years to come was Peter Pan…
It is there that this story finds us. In the aftermath of Peter Pan and his continuous kidnapping of the Wendy girls. Our Wendy is now a grown up, a writer whose first screenplay was a huge success and who has not been able to replicate it with any of her subsequent scripts. How ironic and much like the author of “Peter Pan and Wendy,” J.M. Barrie, for whom the enormous success of “Peter Pan,” the play and the book overshadowed everything else he did. Although it did serve him well, and now everything earned from the stories goes to fund the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London. So that’s nice.
But our Wendy is stuck. Stuck on her script, stuck waiting for her daughter, stuck with an extremely unhelpful agent (Jon Cryer) and an enthusiastic but sometimes equally unhelpful friend on Zoom (Busy Phillips). And stuck in her room trying to write. Mixed in amongst the angst, the anger, the fear and the hilarity are songs. Lots and lots of songs. Rock songs, with a distinctly 80s vibe…the good 80s… and accompanied by a rather brilliant guitarist and vocalist, Tammy Glover, who is literally at the side of the stage at all times. Looking adorably intense and very, very cool. The songs are genius and April Wish sings her heart out. They are funny, rapt with drama and rock opera-esque sublimeness. They hit just the right tone between serious and purposeful, catchy kitschy and heartrending. They fire off Wendy’s emotional torment while she leaps about her room with all the energy of her younger self, torn between her past and her present and her fear of the future.
So much of her life was about Peter…always about Peter, that she forgot who she was without him. And she has been without him for far far longer than she had ever been with him. How many of us can see ourselves in that? Allowing one moment to define us. One mistake. One relationship. One failure or even success. It’s human. It’s female. And it is totally forgivable if we allow it to be.
I loved “Wendy, My Darling.” What an incredibly unique and fearless show. And April Wish is a superstar. Utterly charming and funny, human and completely believable, an adorable rock goddess if ever I’ve seen one.
This is a beautifully written story about a deeply magical part of growing up, whether we are Wendy or ourselves. We can fly if we believe we can. But we have to believe it. And we have to believe we are worthy of it. This play is April’s act of fearlessness. It’s a warrior cry, a call to arms and I for one am totally inspired by it and by April and Tammy and their excellent director Krysia Plonka.
You have the chance to see this play!!!! It’s playing again at the Whitefire on May 27 and June 4 and you would be certifiably insane not to see it!!!!! I cannot recommend “Wendy, My Darling” enough!!! Love, love loved it!!!!!
Tickets:
https://whitefire.stagey.net/projects/9463?tab=details
When:
April 27 and May 4 at 8pm.
Where:
Whitefire Theatre
13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91243
Team:
Starring April Wish with music and lyrics by Tammy Glover, book by April Wish, story by April Wish and Tammy Glover, and directed by Krysia Plonk. Featuring video appearances by Jon Cryer and Busy Philipps.
