Review- Milwaukee Ballet’s Peter Pan

It’s got spritely fairies, tales of derring-do, and a journey to a far-off, fantastic land. So why isn’t Peter Pan a staple of the ballet repertory? What it lacks is a conventional love story–romance to fuel the sensuous energy of a pas de deux or two, or to give some emotional heft to a tragic death or separation.
But never mind the several centuries of ballet tradition, Michael Pink and the Milwaukee Ballet company made a compelling case for a place in the canon with a sinfully charming and enjoyable version of J.M. Barrie’s classic story. Playing to a nearly unprecedented four sell-out crowds, there was plenty of love vibe between the stage and the audience.
With a lot of story to tell, Pink’s Pan is by necessity heavy on action and character, and a little light on those romantic pas de deux. But he and his dancers tell their story with such breezy wit and energy that the evening just floats by.
Um, yes…floats. But the much anticipated extended hang time isn’t the only thing Pan has going for it. To be sure, it is a spectacular and giddy effect. All the more so because the flights of fancy are intelligently imagined and choreographed, including an eye-popping trip over the London skyline. As Pan, Marc Petrocci doesn’t just take off and dangle above the stage floor—he swoops down banisters, alights on window ledges and leaps around the various levels of Rick Graham’s versatile pirate ship set—a bouncing ball between masts and poop decks.
But the flying is only a part of Pink’s terrific comic vocabulary, which infuses the whole evening with a sparkle that goes beyond the rope-and-pulley magic. There’s the loping, buffoonish yo-ho-ho danced by the pirates in Act Three. And the stiff-upper-lip sense of love and commitment expressed in the short duets between the Darling parents (David Hovhannisyan and Jennifer Grapes). Some of the ensembles were a bit ragged, which testifies to the complexity of mounting a production like this.
Certainly part of Pan’s energy comes from the close collaboration between Pink and the ballet’s composer, Philip Feeney. Working with the precision of a film composer and editor, the pair achieves a seamless blending of motion and music. Feeney’s score deftly shifts moods, creates suspense and punctuates the action, and has its own comic touches: when one of the Darlings volunteers to walk the plank on Hook’s ship, we hear strains of a familiar Brit patriotic tune.
It’s just one of many smile-inducing moments in one of the most entertaining evenings I’ve spent at the ballet in many a moon. And judging from the thunderous ovation and screams (yes screams) the show received after the final curtain, there were many boys and girls (of whatever age) who agreed.