This version of Neverland might look a little different than what you remember from the 1953 film version of Disney’s “Peter Pan.”
Viewers will see some differences in this adaptation of “Peter Pan” — written by Larissa FastHorse and directed by Emmy Award winner Lonny Price — coming to The Bushnell in Hartford Feb. 4-9.
The musical began its national tour in January 2024.
Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and Wendy still fly across the stage — this time to live performances of songs like “I’m Flying” and “Neverland” — and there are still fantastical fight scenes.
This time, however, the women are at the forefront of these fights, and characters like Wendy and Tiger Lily — previously portrayed as helpless damsels in distress — now pick up swords and fend for themselves.
“In the first big fight in Act 1, we have a fight between Peter, Wendy, Tiger Lily and the pirates, and in our fight, it does a really good job of inspiring young kids — especially our female audience — because Tiger Lily has her own sword and she’s fighting Hook and fighting the pirates, and you also see Wendy with the sword,” said Leo Gallegos, who is a swing member of the “Peter Pan” cast, in a phone interview with The Republican. That means he steps into multiple ensemble roles each night, depending on where he is needed. He also plays a Lost Boy each night.
Gallegos is a first-generation American — his parents immigrated from Mexico and moved to Arizona. In light of recent political events, Gallegos is proud to be able to celebrate his heritage on stage.
That was another one of FastHorse’s creative choices. In her version of Neverland, those “Indians” from the original film are now a collection of different indigenous individuals, each the last of their culture, from tribes all around the world.
“They all go to Neverland to preserve their culture. Neverland is something that’s helping them and saving them, keeping their culture alive until maybe one day they can find a way to bring it back,” FastHorse explained in a Playbill interview in January 2024.
And the Indigenous people are reflected based on the cultural backgrounds of each cast member. To accomplish that, FastHorse and costume designer Sarafina Bush together reached out to each ensemble member and had a one-on-one conversation with them to learn more about each person’s background. They then did research into each of the native cultures and tribes.
For Gallegos, his outfit was made to accurately represent the Olmec people, a pre-Columbian civilization that lived in Mexico.
“I think any audience members of any age and of any gender can see themselves in the show and can feel inspired by the characters in our show,” Gallegos said.
Prior to “Peter Pan” arriving at The Bushnell, Gallegos answered questions about the changes on stage and the importance of highlighting cultures like his own.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Above, from left, Nolan Almeida as Peter Pan, Kenny Ramos as Acoma, Raye Zaragoza as Tiger Lily and the cast of “Peter Pan.” (Matthew Murphy)Matthew Murphy
Q. How did you get started doing theater? Have you always had a passion for it?
A. Ever since I was little, I was very into music and into the arts, and my parents sent me to this school that prioritized the arts. So, at a very young age, I was exposed to music and theater and dance, and it just became a part of me. Ever since growing up, that’s something that I’ve always known I wanted to do. I went to high school and college in Arizona, where I went to Arizona State University and got my degree in musical theater performance.
Q. After college, when did you land your first role?
A. Funny thing. I graduated in May 2023 and I moved to New York the following September, and then I booked “Peter Pan” in October. It was really such a quick turnaround, it was crazy.
Q. What’s it been like since you started, bringing the magic of “Peter Pan” to life on stage?
A. It’s been so, so cool. The coolest thing about our “Peter Pan” is that it’s an adaptation, so it took all the beauty and the magic from the original “Peter Pan,” but it was tweaked and adapted by (playwright) Larissa FastHorse. She created more prominent female roles, so Wendy is a much more of a prominent role on stage. Tiger Lily has more lines. In the original, Tiger Lily was kind of a damsel in distress, having to be saved by Peter Pan, but in our version, she is her own person. She’s the leader of the Indigenous people and she’s really a force to be reckoned with. It’s been really cool to have these strong female roles in the show and to see all of these kids be inspired by them.
Q. What would you say to encourage people who have seen the original “Peter Pan” to come out and watch this adaptation of it?
A. It is very different, but there are some similarities. For one, you see the flying in person — you see Peter Pan flying across the stage, so the magic of the original is really there, but it also has so much more representation of all of the female roles, but also the representation of cultures is alive in this adaptation. In the original, the Indigenous people are more of a generalization, but that creates negativity and such a bad narrative. What Larissa and our team did is that they decided to create more individuality, and so they took the ensemble members, and they took their own cultural backgrounds and made their indigenous costumes and indigenous characters individualized and specialized for each person.
For example, if I ever swing on for an Indigenous person, my Indigenous costume is based off of a native tribe from Mexico, since my cultural background is Mexican. That’s created so much representation on stage.
Q. What is your favorite part from the show?
A. The flight to Neverland. Paul Rubin, our flight choreographer, did an incredible job with all the flying. The flight to Neverland with Peter, Michael, John and Wendy is so special and jaw-dropping and magical. It is my favorite part of the show.
Q. How does it feel to be able to highlight and celebrate your Mexican culture on stage each night?
A. When I was a kid, there wasn’t a lot of Mexican representation in the theater world. I didn’t see people that looked like me or sounded like me on stage, so being able to bring bits and pieces of my own culture into the show is so amazing. We went to Mexico on tour, so we got to go to Monterrey, and it was so, so nice to go back to Mexico, where my family is from, and to perform and to get to talk to people in Spanish and interview in Spanish, and just show that anybody can do this, and that someone who’s Mexican can also do this. And to see yourself in an actor is so inspiring.
Tickets to “Peter Pan,” which start at $29, can be purchased on The Bushnell’s website.
