When musical theatre songwriting partners, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe set out to create a new Peter Pan, they incorporated a sense of believability previous productions lacked.
“We were attempting to write a faithful, but more contemporary version. We wanted to write Peter Pan for a boy the way James Barrie wanted. But at the time he wrote the story, licensing laws in England wouldn’t allow boys to work on the stage, says Stiles.
Inventive directors simply hired young women in the title role and the tradition continued to modern times.
As their creation Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure opens up at the Arden on Thursday, Nov. 24, they are in France on a working holiday. When the Gazette caught up with them, the duo was enjoying a late breakfast of cheese and croissants after a long bike ride.
Stiles and Drewe have been writing together since they met at Exeter University nearly 28 years ago.
“Our friends in common said we would hate each other. They said we were too much alike.”
Although Stiles describes their relationship as “a marriage with its ups and downs,” their union has been extremely fruitful.
Since pairing up they’ve shared credits on Tutankhamen, Mary Poppins, Just So and Honk!. Their two latest musicals are Betty Blue Eyes and Soho Cinders.
The last few years have been some of their most prolific. While Stiles credits their successful chemistry to a continual rotation of fresh collaborators, he also doesn’t stint on praising Drewe.
“He’s brilliant. He hates doing the same thing twice. He doesn’t like to rest on his laurels. As artists, it is very easy to fall into the trap of repeating yourself. And he keeps us on our toes.”
Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure came about after a failed collaboration with Steven Spielberg to produce Just So as an animation. At the urging of producer Cameron Mackintosh, they immersed themselves in Barrie’s world of enchantment.
By 1996, their first showing won a competition in Denmark and it premiered in Copenhagen in 2000. In 2002 Peter Pan was presented at Royal Festival Hall in London. It was broadcast as a New Year’s Eve concert where the sold-out show was poorly reviewed.
“It was a one-off concert version. It was a mistake to stage it in a concert hall with no flying, no crocodile, no Never Land. We were unhappy with it and it deserved the knocks it received. It didn’t deliver the magic people expected. It’s always upsetting to realize a show isn’t what it could have been.”
So the pair revised it. Four years later, Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre to rave reviews.
Scores of theatre companies have picked it up and Stiles is delighted they’ve gotten over the bump.
“Peter Pan is full of little joys. I never fail to be touched by Peter’s wish that there’s always tomorrow to get it better, to do better and get it right.”
