Peter Pan Goes Wrong

In celebration of the wife’s birthday a few days earlier, last week we went to the Ahmanson Theatre at L.A.’s Music Center downtown to see the hilarious “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” a play where everything goes askew, from missed cues, forgotten and mangled lines, mishandled props, and falling sets. (We saw the Mischief Theatre Company’s earlier production, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” in the same venue in 2019, so knew what to expect.) While all the mayhem, of course, is carefully staged and choreographed, it’s nevertheless a sight to behold live and in real time!

Joining in the fun this evening as the guest narrator was actor Bradley Whitford (as himself) who also becomes a “victim” of the incompetence and miscues of the production. (At one point, appalled at how everything has gone awry, he mutters, “You know, I’m only doing this because of the strike!”) Actor Daniel Dae Kim is scheduled to take over the role near the end of August.

Upping the ante from the previous production is that actors must contend with a runaway revolving set—and since this is ostensibly a production of Peter Pan, out-of-control flying harnesses as well! (I should add that this production also encouraged a lot of audience participation—leading to some hilarious (and ad-libbed) retorts from the stage. (At one point, one of the actors blames the poor education system in the U.S. for the reason “Americans don’t understand Shakespeare!”)

And we totally lucked out in getting great seats—I purchased them last minute on Goldstar, an authorized discount ticket reseller. Though you choose the section you want to be seated, you don’t choose the specific seats. However, the site guarantees the best available seats at time of purchase and that our four tickets would be together. We selected rear orchestra and ended up in the middle of the house, about 20 rows from center stage! (Before the show, I even bumped into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in about 15 years!)

Though traffic was awful getting there (we left early so that we could get dinner first not far from the venue), taking an hour to get from West L.A. to downtown, about 12 miles, it took only 20 minutes to get home after the show at 10:30 p.m.!