Peter Pan the Musical Delights With the Magic of Flight

There’s something spectacular about flight: the loops your stomach does as the ground shrinks below you; the birds-eye view as you flit overhead; the spectacular feeling that, as the poem goes, you’ve slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God. Then again, if all that’s keeping you from a high-velocity introduction to a theater floor is, basically, a heavy-duty (and very tightly harnessed) jockstrap, there’s also something deeply uncomfortable about flight.

I’m talking about stage flight, not to be confused with stage fright, which some people may experience when they’re sent swooping by a wire 15 feet over a solid wood floor. I’m on the set of Peter Pan the Musical, and quickly learning that it takes a lot more than pixie dust to get this production off the ground.

When I walk onto the stage at Carmel’s Outdoor Forest Theater, George Matsumoto and Billy Brewer, a pair of bear-like men, are waiting. The set is decorated like a bedroom, and towering overhead is a 25-foot-high structure that controls the special effects. I’m here to experience flight, one of the stunts that makes the production so memorable.

The two men size me up.

“You the reporter?” one asks.

“I am,” I reply. They look relieved.

“Good!” he says. “You won’t be heavy.”

Their job is to control the wires that send Pan and other cast members flying off to Neverland. Even though there’s a pulley system, the load isn’t any easier to handle: The volunteers – parents of kids in the play – are pretty much taking on the weight of whoever is in the harness. So they’re happy to see me, the kind of guy who could easily disappear behind a lamp post.

Peter Pan the Musical has long been a local favorite, according to director Walt deFaria. It’s the fourth time he’s directed the musical, the last production in 2007.

Beyond the timeless story and show tunes, what makes this particular production appealing is the theater itself. The Outdoor Forest Theater, an ampitheater set in a wooded thicket, is tucked into a quiet neighborhood a few blocks from downtown. The wooden seats form an arc that spreads up an incline, and the stage lies under a blanket of sky. It’s Carmel’s version of Athens’ Theatre of Dionysus.

DeFaria says the pre-show is a community affair; families sprawl out early for a picnic and kids come dressed as pirates to hear One-Eyed Dick tell the history of Peter Pan. This production is an adaptation of the version performed by the National Theatre in London, but Peter Pan as a play has been around since 1904. Cathy Rigby, one of the most famous Pan performers and a former Olympic gynmast, is still playing the role, and she’s now 60.

If it’s been a while since you’ve heard the tale, here’s a synopsis: Pan arrives one night at the Darling residence looking for his friend Tinkerbell. He accidentally wakes up the children, Wendy, Michael and John, who want to know where he came from. Pan, with the help of some pixie dust, flies them to Neverland where they battle pirates like Captain Hook and have adventures with the rowdy Lost Boys.

Ring a bell? It’s not just kids who love the show, says deFaria. Adults too get swept up in the story, a poignant reminder of their own childhoods now lost in a blur of bills, deadlines and responsibilities.

The story represents that eternal longing: “Youth lost, youth you wish you could keep,” deFaria says. Or in Pan’s words: “I am youth, I am joy, I am freedom.”

Part of that magic is the act of flying.

“It’s magic, absolutely,” says Katie O’Bryon Champlin, the Bay Area-actress playing the role of Peter Pan. “I don’t find it scary. It’s very freeing.”

Of course, flying isn’t for everyone.

“I have no desire,” intones Matsumoto, one of the volunteer flight operators.

But a glance at the professional rigging – and faith in deFaria’s experience – puts me at ease. Terry Nelson, flying director of ZFX Flying Effects, shows me the ropes. I strap on the harness, a decidedly uncomfortable contraption, and am lifted a foot off the ground. I’m “flying” now, though I’d say the sensation is more akin to dangling. Nelson shows me a couple of tricks, like front flips and back flips. I also learn how to make myself stay horizontal, which it turns out, is all in the arms. Trying to do an arms forward pose, Superman-style, makes me flip over like a diver mid-arc, but switching to an airplane pose levels me off.

After that, I’m up in the air. Matsumoto and Brewer swing me across the stage while I do impressions of Running Man and the Dark Knight. It’s too much fun to worry about falling and fracturing my femurs. I’m delighted, momentarily invigorated by youth. (Though, somehow, my back isn’t.)

“Your body might grow up, but your heart doesn’t have to,” O’Bryon Champlin says. This seems true for anyone who puts on the Pan costume and soars.

PETER PAN THE MUSICAL runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30pm, and Sunday matinees at 2pm from Aug. 22 to Sept. 29. Discount previews Aug. 22 and 23: $20/preview admission; regular price: $36/general admission, $28/matinee; kids under 12 always $7.50. Outdoor Forest Theater, Mountain View and Santa Rita, Carmel. 622-0700, www.pacrep.org