‘Finding Neverland’ Puts the Playwright on the Stage

Patrick Regan

A pirate captain with a hook. A crocodile with a clock in its stomach. A boy who never grew up. Whether it was through Disney, “Hook,” or any number of adaptations, it’s quite likely you know the story of Peter Pan. What you might not know is the story of J.M. Barrie, the man who made children believe they could fly.

Enter the musical “Finding Neverland,” taking stage at L.A.’s Pantages theater. Based on the 2004 Academy Award Winning film of the same name starring Johnny Depp, “Finding Neverland” tells the story of playwright J.M. Barrie following the failure of his previous play “Little Mary.” Despondent and looking for inspiration, he has a chance meeting with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her four sons: Jack, George, Michael, and Peter.

After the death of Mr. Davies, Barrie becomes a surrogate father to them, and formulates a story, a tale of boys who never grow up. But he faces strong resistance from his skeptical producers and from society that looks askance at his friendship with the widow Davies.

Barrie would later confirm that young Peter Davies was the inspiration for both the character and the name of Peter Pan. After Sylvia Davies died, Barrie served as guardian for the children.

The creator of Peter Pan was quite a character himself. George Bernard Shaw was his neighbor in London for a time, and once participated in a Western that Barrie scripted and filmed. H. G. Wells was a friend of many years, and tried to intervene when Barrie’s marriage fell apart.

Barrie also founded an amateur cricket team for his friends. Those who played on the team included H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and P. G. Wodehouse.

Just as Disney transformed Barrie’s original play by adding music and song, “Finding Neverland” the musical takes the film and brings the story to life with music and song. Writers Eliot Kennedy and Gary Barlow are both British pop music veterans who bring not just the world of Neverland to life, but the Victorian London that spawned it.

“Finding Neverland” is at the Pantages Feb. 21-March 12.