Finding Neverland makes its much-awaited Broadway opening Thursday, April 16, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. The musical is based on the Oscar-winning film by the same name from 2004.
The Broadway production follows the story of J.M. Barrie, played by Matthew Morrison, a struggling playwright who seeks to find better fortune both as a writer and as a man. His luck finally changes when he meets his inspiration in the form of the beautiful Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, played by Laura Michelle Kelly, and her four young sons: Jack, George, Michael and Peter.
Through the help of the four young lads, Barrie is able to create the magical world, Neverland, and transform it into the setting of his grand play about four boys who do not want to grow up. Barrie soon realizes that he too is still a boy at heart, and together with the Davies family, rediscovers his dream.
Finding Neverland is directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus. It features music and lyrics created by Gary Barlow and Grammy winner Eliot Kennedy, and is written by Olivier Award nominee James Graham. Emmy Award-winner Mia Michaels leads the play's choreography.
Aside from Morrison and Kelly, the cast also includes Kelsey Grammer as Charles Frohman, Carolee Carmello as Madame du Maurier, Teal Wicks as Mary Barrie, Alex Dreier as Jack, Aidan Gemme as Peter, Jackson DeMott Hill as George and Noah Hinsdale as Michael.
The remarkable production team aside, the musical faces more of a struggle to impress in its own right. Here's what noteworthy critics had to say about Finding Neverland:
Ben Brantley of The New York Times says, "The stage version of Finding Neverland is no replica of the film, though it might have been better if it were. Instead, it heightens the screenplay's sentimentality, tidy psychologizing and life-affirming messages by thickening their syrup and corn quotients in ways presumably deemed palatable to theatergoing children and their parents. The show brings to mind those supersize sodas sold in movie theaters, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg once quixotically campaigned against."
Marilyn Stasio of Variety says, "There's not enough flying in Finding Neverland — metaphorical flying, that is, those giddy flights of wit and imagination that make us believe, if not in fairies, then at least that the American musical is still alive and well. Despite the technical marvels... [it] remains stubbornly earthbound. The lead in its feet has a lot to do with the ponderous lyrics, but at the heart of the matter, this material doesn't cry out to be a musical."
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter says, "Bombastic and exhausting, the show confuses childishness with an affinity for the child inside, at times recalling Wicked in its busily assaultive hyperactivity, but without that show's catchy songs or engaging central character dynamic."
Elysa Gardner of USA Today says, "In the end... this Neverland is most charming in subdued moments, when the emphasis is on human connection and, eventually, loss."
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