A Critique of ABA Productions’ Essay

ABA Productions musical interpretation of J. M. Barries well-loved childrens story rekindled in its audience the desire to soar in the air, dance with fairies and swim with mermaids. It is presently on its Asian Tour and will be shown in the Hong Kong honorary society for Performing Arts Lyric Theater on June 1, 2007. The story begins when tool pan teaches three children (Wendy, John and Michael Darling) how to fly using their happy thoughts and fairy dust from a little pixie named Tinkerbell.Mystery and adventure unravels excitingly as they meet lost boys (and girls) who are serious about existence children for the rest of their lives, Indians under the leadership of Princess Tiger Lily, mermaids who can dance gracefully, and frightfully funny pirates Captain Hook, the leader of these buccaneers is lance Pans near formidable opponent and almost succeeded in eliminating all of Neverland. But of course, Peter Pan saved the dayConsidering that the plays creative warmheartednes s is heavy with renowned professionals from all over the world, it probably took its Executive Producer-Director, Matthew Gregory, eld of happy thoughts and tons of fairy dust to make his team work such a cohesive yet vibrant production that seemed to be perfect in all aspects. Gregory wonderfully intertwined rattling good lighting, innocent(p) stage design (which was imported from China), spectacular effects, innovative technology and impressive music (composed by famous composer, Karl Jenkins) to heighten or downplay the irritability of every scene.Tracy Nunnally, the flying director, proved his prowess as the flying actors glided on and off the stage with comfort and ease that seemed to be just a natural thing to do. The make-up and costumes (especially for the mermaids who can walk with their fins) brought out the very nature of each component part and drew the audience even more into the story. Praises to Elaine Wade and Carol Bloomfield for such beautiful and imaginati ve costumesThirteen grade old Ryutaro Yanagita (playing Peter Pan) amazed everyone with his relentless energy and stunts on the set up and in the air. The choreography of popular Filipino choreographer, Kitty Aguila-Cortes, required a lot of running, jumping and break dancing moves further you will never hear this boy catch his breath only the audience does. anes spirit cannot help but join him fly as he zooms beyond the stage and above the crowd. Only one character in the play seemed to lack enough humor or reverberance with the audience Nana, the nurse dog.The actor portrayed the role well but one is left thinking if there were scenes that should bear focused on this characters antics to add more spice to the fuss. Peter Pans message is the answer to mans quest for fadeless youth Keep your happy thoughts alive in you heart and have faith in yourself and others. ABA Productions effectively conveyed this theme as every someone in the audience felt so much happier and youthfu l subsequently the play. This is one spectacular and powerful show that no child or child at heart should ever miss