Stumped @ Resolute Theatre Project
—Jill Sweeney
Nothing like seeing a full-fledged musical written by a teenager—music, lyrics, dialogue—to put your own accomplishments into perspective. Stumped: A New Musical is a gritty, sort-of prequel to J.M. Barrie’s classic children’s tale Peter Pan, which contextualizes the rivalry between the eternally youthful Peter and the dastardly Captain Hook as the result of childhood friendship ending in bitter betrayal.
Resolute Theatre Project, a new company out of Farmer’s Branch, worked with young playwright/composer Jackson Castello (who first started developing the project as a sixth-grade homework assignment) to put on the musical as a workshop, partially blocked, with a full cast of local actors. And while the simple act of putting an entire, full-length musical together as a teen would be accomplishment enough, Stumped, although definitely a work in progress, has more than one catchy tune and, even better, takes some big swings.
In the musical’s framing device a grown-up Peter Pan (Kyle Lester), married and settled down, spins yarns for his niece Kate (Ruby Chabot) about his youth, describing his abandonment by his parents (Randi Ruppersberg and Grady W. Smithey III) at a London orphanage—which leads to a fateful meeting between Peter (Andrew Cave) and James (Anthony Bartke), the future Captain Hook. The two boys bond as James helps Peter cope with his new life as an orphan, and with the memories of his abusive father. The two run away and join a gang of pirates, led by the fearsome Blackbeard (Lester), and are magically transported to Neverland.
Despite their close friendship, the boys grow apart as Peter bonds with domineering Tinkerbelle (Chloe Dahlander) and James falls in love with Tiger Lily (Almaz Clawson). After a violent confrontation between the boys ends with James donning the mantle of Hook, we see moments from the traditional Peter Pan (Wendy, the Lost Boys, etc.), but the audience is privy to who the real villains and heroes of the tale are.
Director Amy Cave (whose son Andrew plays Peter) has drawn together some impressive young talent for this workshop, and their enthusiasm for the material is apparent. The show itself takes a number of unexpected turns, and provides opportunities for cast members to shine, most notably the adult Hook John Pfaffenberger (double cast, per tradition, as Mr. Darling), whose surprisingly sweet voice brought a genuine pathos to the character; an unexpectedly dastardly Smee (Alexander Joshi), who chewed the scenery with appropriate levels of glee; and Lester, who brought genuine warmth to his turn as an older and wiser Peter.
Bartke and Cave had some lovely moments together, most notably perhaps in “Second Star to the Right,” the first song penned for the musical. Both actresses portraying Tiger Lily (Clawson as a child and Kristal Seid as an adult) gave the character weight and depth. Seid is especially effective in her mournful Act II duet with Hook, “I Won’t Let You Go.” Ashley Tysor makes the most of her two roles, as the Mme. Thenardier-ish Festa, who runs Peter and James’ orphanage with an eye on how to profit from the children, and as pirate Murder Mouth, sweetly dueting with Russpersberg’s pirate Cannibal in the queer-coded “Two Committed Old Bachelors.”
Though there’s work to be done tightening the characters’ emotional journeys and tying some plot threads together, it seems churlish to nit-pick an ambitious work from a clearly talented young person. I’ll be keeping an eye on where Castello and Stumped go next.
WHEN: Through August 7
WHERE: 14452 Midway Rd, Farmer’s Branch, TX 75244
