La Mirada Theatre’s ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ Exemplifies Everything Right
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La Mirada Theatre and McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong is one for the history books, topping not just its farcical predecessor earlier this year, The Play That Goes Wrong, but 2022’s Young Frankenstein for perhaps the funniest show ever put on in La Mirada. This isn’t just a laugh-a-minute romp — it is, without hyperbole, a laugh-a-second spectacle of what happens when the most incompetent of “actors” of the Cornley Drama Society attempt a staging of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. And with the iconic Cathy Rigby, Tony-nominated for her star-making turn as Peter Pan and returning to the stage, Peter Pan Goes Wrong is not just an all-timer, but a homecoming.
 Cathy Rigby stars in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Even more memorable is that opening night directly coincided with an 11th-inning L.A. Dodgers World Series victory extemporaneously acknowledged several times by cast members, many of them returning from The Play That Goes Wrong, one of whom in fact revealed a 4-4 tie game in the 10th inning during Act I preceded by second-act confirmatory exclamations of another championship.
 Reggie De Leon, Nick Apostolina, Steven Booth, and Regina Fernandez star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Those who attended the Ahmanson run in 2023 may note that this Peter Pan Goes Wrong has been, notwithstanding its source material, cultivated from the ground up, featuring some of SoCal’s finest performers. While the humor written and performed by U.K.-based Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields is still very much on display, the lines and hijinks find an extra gear thanks to the direction imparted by Eric Petersen, who, just like with The Play, ensures that Peter Pan builds, like a crescendo, on one side-splitting folly after another by real-life entertainers playing “actors” portraying characters within the Pan universe. The layers run deep, and pay off in spades, particularly when the fiascos become impossible to ignore and the Pan characters comically acknowledge the embarrassment of the “actors” inhabiting them.
 Cathy Rigby, Josh Grisetti, and Reggie De Leon star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
The personable and still-athletic Rigby leads by example, never taking herself too seriously, with meta winks to her past, and having the time of her life. Her narrator, being strode out by an “autonomous” girthy armchair, receives a heartwarming ovation upon introduction. Then, with a devilish, almost exasperated, grin, she generously sprinkles fairy dust not long before her relationship with her chair becomes strained. Soon, Rigby is navigating this wooden contraption like an obstacle course upon which the guffawing audience notices her compromised like never before. Rigby’s Cecco the pirate, too, is disarmingly off-the-cuff, fueling extra laughs.
 Ixchel Valiente, Nick Apostolina, Trent Mills, Louis Pardo, Nicole Parker, Reggie De Leon, and Regina Fernandez star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Steven Booth, who previously earned plaudits in the title role of La Mirada’s Did You See What Walter Paisley Did Today?, returns as Jonathan delineating the bumbling Peter Pan, hurriedly reaching for his panpipes when beaten by audio cues, and flying as he undoubtedly does but crashing and burning all the same in epic fashion.
 Regina Fernandez, Reggie De Leon, Jamie Morgan, Trent Mills, and Nick Apostolina star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Moreover, a love triangle hangs in the balance as Booth’s Pan is in a romantic liaison with Regina Fernandez’s Sandra who portrays a hysterically aroused Wendy; suffice it say, the two actuate an onstage plausible deniability that a kiss (thimble) can be mistaken for one that involves tonsil hockey. There is, of course, Nick Apostolina’s Max whose Michael Darling has a secret crush on Sandra that is soon not so clandestine — his Michael and Crocodile (rolled out via the “Croc Scooter”) derided and lampooned in short order. Apostolina, through his dry delivery and melancholic affectations, is an audience favorite as is Reggie De Leon’s Dennis who relies on headphones and cue cards to remember/read lines as John Darling and Mr. Smee, sometimes befuddling the two and uttering stage direction unintended for the public’s ears. The locked-in De Leon, additionally, is terrific at selling his persona’s unpreparedness and angst as a fish out of water.
 Regina Fernandez, Steven Booth, and Reggie De Leon star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Josh Grisetti is spot-on as Chris the director, Mr. Darling, and Captain Hook. More so than just executing his lines, Grisetti is superbly skilled at exercising his non-verbal wares to convey being in agony (Mr. Darling), distressed by noises (i.e., errant cab honks) and, with complete conviction, utilizing the shout-outs and participation of an invested audience through improvisation, particularly when Hook’s physical malady precludes the opening of the poison bottle that would finally eliminate Pan. The breaking of the fourth wall has never been so satisfying, which Grisetti’s Hook maximizes in Act II.
Trent Mills gratifyingly follows suit. Mills’s co (or assistant) director Robert is hilariously oblivious to the damage (and death) he has caused, his Nana the Dog gets amusingly ensnared in a doggy door (a hat tip to a similar scene in The Play That Goes Wrong), his Peter’s Shadow is uproariously more concerned with moving and dancing provocatively than mirroring Peter, and his Starkey is comically unintelligible.
 Cathy Rigby, Josh Grisetti, Regina Fernandez, Steven Booth, Reggie De Leon, Trent Mills, and (on floor) Nick Apostolina star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Arguably stealing the show is Nicole Parker whose Annie depicts the greatest number of parts in Cornley’s Peter Pan, oftentimes juggling between outfits as one literal door closes and another opens. But be it the caring Mrs. Darling, the cheeky Liza, Curly, or Tinker Bell, Parker pulls off everything with tireless gusto whether she’s feverishly sprinting among her catalog of roles or successfully singing over a chainsaw. Of note is that Parker’s pantomiming as Tink, who tries to communicate what would happen to Pan if he were to drink the poison, is a definite highlight, featuring a little bit of Michael Jackson in “Thriller” and the simultaneous bodily effects of disagreeable toxicity.
Jamie Morgan and Louis Pardo, as stagehands Trevor and Gill, are just as loveably noobish as one would expect, doing more to undo than facilitate. Morgan’s Trevor, specifically, has not lost his affinity for Duran Duran and even gives the role of Pan a courageous, but ultimately catastrophic, go in a moment that fits the audience’s suspension of disbelief as the avalanche of mishaps roll into behemoth balls of ineptitude.
 Reggie De Leon, Ixchel Valiente, Josh Grisetti, Cathy Rigby, Nick Apostolina, Regina Fernandez, Trent Mills, and Louis Pardo star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Last, but not least among the Peter Pan Goes Wrong cast, is the highly credible and adroit Ixchel Valiente who is the stage-frightened Lucy whom the crowd wishes to see redeem herself in spite of vocal and physical paralyses.
This spoof on steroids functions as seamlessly as it does, in all its glorious errors, due to a design team that envisions and achieves the perfect disaster. Stephen Gifford’s revolving scenery (on a turntable) may appear haphazardly cobbled, but it’s incredibly resilient, using parts from Rigby’s Peter Pan set from years ago. Adam Ramirez’s costumes, despite appearing purposefully ragged, are versatile (epitomized by Nicole Parker dually playing Liza and Mrs. Darling in the same scene).
 Trent Mills, Josh Grisetti, Reggie De Leon, Cathy Rigby, (and hanging upside down) Steven Booth star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
Steven Young’s lighting knows when to be resplendent and when to be darkly amateurish after an “electrocution.” Kaitlin Yagen’s hair, wigs, and makeup look just apt in this topsy-turvy setting, while Kevin Williams’s props are multifunctional and integral in memorable sight gags. John Blaylock’s music composition and Josh Bessom’s sound design suitably underscore the irresistibly humorous visual stimuli. Eric S. Elias’s pyrotechnics introduce Rigby with “unintentionally” explosive fanfare and fight coordinator Michael Polak has crafted the best worst duels ever witnessed.
Besides Petersen, the behind-the-scenes headliners are main choreographer Christine Negherbon alongside flying sequences choreographer Paul Rubin. So much of why Peter Pan Goes Wrong tickles audiences is because of the play’s razor-sharp physicality, and the timing of that, vis-à-vis the set, props or goings-on manifested by the performers. The slightest rigging or harness miscue would not only result in fewer laughs but, worse, actual injuries rather than mostly pretend ones. Performers and their surroundings have never been so intertwined as they get a faceful of furniture or are hurled around by a “malfunctioning” wire. The art here, which indubitably soars, is making the fastidiously planned come across as horribly unplanned.
 Regina Fernandez and Cathy Rigby star in the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jason Niedle/TETHOS |
If there was ever any doubt that non-Mischief Theatre company performers could hit a World Series-winning home run with The Play That Goes Wrong and now Peter Pan Goes Wrong, then the indisputable triumph of these productions by La Mirada Theatre and McCoy Rigby Entertainment emphatically dispels that notion. Certainly, the right individuals have been cast to pull off feats of pitch-perfect chaos and comedic brilliance. It doesn’t hurt that in Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Cathy Rigby, a woman deeply familiar with the eponymous character, is leading the flight as only she can, capping a comeback performance with one more foray into the sky. Truly, one must be supernaturally capable to make onstage calamities unfold with such effortless, belly-aching precision.
