Peter Pan Goes Wrong – Lyric Theatre, London

Writers: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields

Director: Adam Megiddo

Mischief Theatre started their conquest of Broadway and the West End in a room above the Old Red Lion pub in Islington. They have come a long way, garlanded with awards and multiple shows running simultaneously, the longest-running play on Broadway, and a very enthusiastic, very committed, very loyal audience of fans.

What do you get at a XXX Goes Wrong show? You get slapstick galore – continuous pratfalls and collapsing scenery, stuck doors, fragmenting props. People get hit with things all the time, as they do in silent films. You get very obvious set-ups for gags, which leave you waiting ten, fifteen minutes for the punchline. You get breathtaking stagecraft. It is hard flying the Peter Pan actor well, it’s much, much harder flying him ‘badly’. Every time Peter takes off he demolishes part of the set, and, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, Mischief Theatre doesn’t just launch their actors into the flattage till it falls over, they have an actual plan.

This is not a pantomime. The director (who also plays Captain Hook and Mr. Darling) is very insistent that it is a ‘seasonal vignette’. The audience, however, think it should be a pantomime, and assail the actor with ‘oh no it isn’t’ chants, and information as to the location of Peter Pan. ‘Behind you’ is the general idea. This is the heart of the appeal of Something Goes Wrong shows. The audience is incredibly on board with the company, really ready to assist, to enjoy, to emote. The hoary old gags that take ten minutes to land are greeted like old friends.

The sap who plays the crocodile is taken to the audience’s collective bosom, and when he finally gets a proper kiss from the Wendy actress whom he has yearned for all show, there is a frisson in the audience and a wave of relief and happiness. The audience at a performance of The Rocky Horror Show spends their time suffering through the plot so that they can throw their piece of toast or chant their line. The audience for Peter Pan Goes Wrong is absolutely with the players, absolutely prepared to be worried when Tinkerbell’s costume electrocutes her. She is revived with as much commitment from a house full of adults, as a traditional Tinkerbell in front of a house full of tinies.

This is a very up-front piece of entertainment. It isn’t subtle. If something is going to break, it will break at the most dramatically inappropriate moment, if anyone mentions a thing to be cautious of, it’s going to collapse very soon. There is a lot of fun to be had guessing what’s going to happen and the show occasionally surprises, but if the expected disaster happens, everyone is delighted anyway. And, of course, the stagecraft involved in making those disasters occur on cue without actually maiming the performers is of a very high order indeed.

Predictable fun, but fun all the same.

Runs until 14 January 2024