Show History

History

Inspiration

Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher is based on the 2004 children's novel of a similar name, co-written by humorist, Dave Barry, and suspense writer, Ridley Pearson.  The book and play function as an origin story for the character of Peter Pan and as a prologue to the events in J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy (the original work of Peter Pan).  Although the work is meant to honor Barrie's original creation, it has many differences with the original novel The Little White Bird, Barrie's own story about Peter's early adventures.

Productions

Peter and the Starcatcher premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in California on February 13, 2009.  The production featured music from Wayne Barker and was co-directed by Roger Rees, the Tony-winning partner of playwright, Rick Elice, and Alex Timbers, the Tony-nominated lyricist for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.  After a couple of more years of tweaking, the play moved east to the New York Theatre Workshop Off-Broadway.  It ran from February 18, to April 24, 2011, and featured performances from Christian Borle, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Adam Chanler-Berat.

With great success at the New York Theatre Workshop, including multiple extensions, the play moved to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre. It opened on April 15, 2012, and featured nearly all of the Off-Broadway cast.  The production closed on January 20, 2013, after 319 regular performances, but reopened at New World Stages Off-Broadway soon after, on March 18, 2013.  After nearly three straight years in NYC, Peter and the Starcatcher closed on January 12, 2014.  A national tour of the show started in Denver on August 15, 2013.

Cultural Influence

  • Peter and the Starcatcher is one of the first musicals to run Off-Broadway, transfer to Broadway and then transfer back Off-Broadway once more.  What's more, each of these runs were nine months at most, making it one of the only non-touring shows to play three different theatres in less than three years.

Trivia

  • Peter and the Starcatcher received a Tony Award, a Lortel Award, a Tina Award, and a Drama League Award for Outstanding Play.  It also was nominated for Best New Play in the very first year of the Off-Broadway Alliance Awards.