Hurrah Players is raising a talented bunch of kids throught their arts education program. The things they manage to do with all those young people is truly impressive. Hurrah's fall production this year was Peter Pan, a great show to do with children, based on the classic novel by James M. Barrie.

The Darling children (MAGGIE GEROE as Wendy, DAVID WILBOURNE as Michael, and CJ DOSS as John) were, well... darling. And gosh darn talented little actors, too. Miss Geroe was a lovely Wendy, with just the right blend of maternal feelings towards the other children and hopeful romantic feelings towards Peter. Her singing was not as strong as her acting skills, but at her age, that's just a matter of training. Plus, Wendy doesn't have a whole lot of singing to do anyway, so she was very well-cast in her role. She is a very talented actress, and I'm sure we'll be seeing even more of her abilities in the future.

  Mr. Wilbourne as Michael astounded me. Outside of professional work, I've never seen a seven year-old perform so well. Not to mention, he's absolutely adorable. Mr. Doss as John was energetic almost (but not quite) to the point of distraction. Some of his best acting moments were when he was simply in the background watching others in a scene. I've known adult actors who have problems remembering that "acting is REacting", as many of my college professors would say. These three children caught the heartstings the minute they began to speak and held them all the way through the production. Bravo, Darlings!

 Peter Pan is a difficult role. Difficult to sing, difficult to fly, difficult to act. SCHUYLER MIDGETT has terrific voice for the role, and her dance training obviously served her well in the fight and flight sequences. She had an odd tendency, however, to end most of her sentences with a question mark. Meaning, the last word had this upward lilt that made it seem more of a question than a statement. This happened with nearly every line from beginning to end. A few of Peter's fantastically sarcastic one-liners came through very well though, with great delivery and a deadpan expression. I'm a big fan of the sarcastic one-liner, as those who know me can attest.

KEVIN STUDER as Captain Hook and the other adults in his crew had the best roles in the show, and they obviously had tons o' fun up there. Who wouldn't love jumping around the stage, acting ridiculous, and shout ARRRR every few minutes? Mr. Studer seemed to have less fun in his role as Mr. Darling, but really, who can blame him for that?

Hands down, the most impressive part of the evening was the number "Ugg-A-Wugg", choreographed by DUSTIN ELSEA

  The final act of this show is rather short when compared to what came before it. Basically there's the big battle bewteen the Lost Boys and the Pirates, the return to London, and the tag that occurs twenty years later. The ending of this story has never set well with me. First of all, there's a big battle where Peter and his boys are killing pirates. Children killing people? In a children's story? The sight of three nine year-olds with swords bashing at an adult is a a bit disturbing to me. Then when the Darling return to London, we find they've been gone for a long time and their parents don't think they'll ever return. Pretty traumatic, if you ask me. If you're going to write a story with magic in it, why not just have time flow differently in Neverland, so the poor parent don't have to spend money and years in therapy? But of course, this is the story's fault, not Hurrah's.

  Compared with the rest of the show, this final act seemed under-rehearsed. While before, transitions were smooth and well-planned, the ending got kind of chaotic and mushy. The sequence that finally gets rid of Hook looked under-directed or under-understood by the actors. It got the point across, but the magic was lost. When the set changed back to the London bedroom, the debris from the bomb that Hook lit was still covering the stage. Time was tight for the set change, I'm sure, but two good swipes with a wide broom doesn't really take all THAT much time.

The combination of the mild chaos in performance and the natural parental aversion to child violence made the conclusion of this musical rather anti-climatic. The audience just didn't react nearly as enthusiastically as they had to the rest of the show, kids and parents both.

 One technical note: There was a large discrepency in clarity among the various microphones being used in this production. Not being a sound engineer, it's hard for me to diagnose the exact problem, but some of the voices came out crystal clear and others... didn't. Hook's voice sounded almost muffled and was sometimes very hard to understand, while the voice of one of the Lost Boys came out clear as the Voice of God. Peter Pan had the same volume as the better mics, but the poor girl sounded as if she was yelling the whole night.

As I said in the beginning, I wish I had left before that last act. The first half was so energetic and entertaining and then the end of the show let us down. Had I left during intermission, I would have felt like I just came out of Disney World, for this really was a very good show.