Los Angeles Times - 11.03.2020

LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020E3

“Fly,” the new musical based on
J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novel “Peter and
Wendy,” is more interested in the
girl who will gracefully mature
than in the boy who adamantly re-
fuses to grow up. But something
gets in the way of her stirring story:
a musical production that has little
faith in the imagination of theater-
goers.
Everything is dictated in such
generically strident terms that for
much of “Fly,” which opened Sun-
day at La Jolla Playhouse, I ducked
for cover. The creative team, an ex-
citing assemblage of adventurous
talent, clearly isn’t interested in
playing it safe. But a guiding vision
is absent.
Playwright Rajiv Joseph (“Ben-
gal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”)
wrote the irreverent, Freudian-
friendly book. He and Kirsten
Childs (“The Bubbly Black Girl
Sheds her Chameleon Skin”) col-
laborated on the lyrics, which try to
slip inside the characters’ dam-
aged psyches.
Bill Sherman (who won a Tony
for his orchestrations for “In the
Heights”) composed the music.
The Broadway-style rock blare in-
duces a Pavlovian reaction in the
audience by bullying theatergoers
into believing that they’re having a
good time despite all evidence to
the contrary.
The director is Jeffrey Seller,
best known as the Tony-winning
producer of “Rent,” “Avenue Q,”
“In the Heights” and “Hamilton.”
Seller’s theatrical acumen is leg-
endary, but this genius hasn’t
translated into his staging. “Fly”
feels derivative in a way that had
me wondering if I were watching a
new installment of “Forever Broad-
way,” the lovingly clever parody
show that in this accidental ver-
sion seems a little too on the nose.
The tale’s traditional storybook
charm is overrun by a cacophony
that isn’t easy to sort out. Wendy
(Storm Lever, one of the stars of
“Summer: The Donna Summer
Musical,” another La Jolla Play-
house misfire) longs to visit the
land her imagination can already
see. But the manifestation of this
world resembles a reptilian version
of “The Lion King.”
Why, I wondered, is there a
green lizard creeping around
Wendy’s bedroom? And what are
those swamp creatures dancing
and singing with the determina-
tion of a “High School Musical”
casting call? As it turns out, the liz-
ard is a crocodile (Liisi La-
Fontaine) and those swamp cre-
atures are trees. I’m not sure how
long it was into the show when I fi-
nally figured this out, but the en-

lightenment didn’t enhance my

pleasure.

“Calling to Me,” the murky

opening number that had all the

enchantment of a telemarketer in-

trusion, had me immediately want-

ing to hang up. When the noisiness

subsides and Wendy and her wid-

owed father (Eric Anderson) inter-

act, a different kind of creepiness

seeps in.

“Fly” wants to probe the psy-

chological wounds of its charac-

ters, but the show is so afraid of si-

lence and so committed to wise-

cracks that it’s impossible to take

the interior lives of the characters

all that seriously.

Wendy doesn’t like to talk about

the loss of her mother. Her father

wants to talk about little else, even

as his daughter assumes a caretak-

ing role with him that seems al-

most spousal.

When Peter Pan (an appealing

Lincoln Clauss) barges through

Wendy’s window, the possibility of

escape filled me with gratitude. By

the time Tink (Isabelle McCalla)

descends, however, I was a bit more

ambivalent about the prospective

journey.

Peter’s fairy companion is a

vamping showgirl full of sass. Dan-

gling on a pulley, she looks like she

strayed in from a Caesars Palace

extravaganza. Forced to remem-

ber what Peter, an amnesiac, is un-

able to recall, she looks after the

Boy Who Would Not Grow Up with

an affection that’s as queasily ma-

ternal as it is amorous.

The Oedipal dynamics kick into

high gear with the Lost Boys, who

plead with Wendy to tuck them

into bed when she lands in Never-

land. Hook (a flamboyant Ander-

son), Peter’s archenemy, mourns

his boyhood blankey and hopes to

turn this lost little lass into what he

bizarrely calls “a Momma Proxy.”

Joseph’s smart-aleck comedy,

compulsively exposing the scared

and needy boy behind the bully,

wears thin in places.

Visually, the production, un-

folding on a bamboo jungle of a set

by Anna Louizos, is not especially

seductive. The aerial design by

Pichón Baldinu (best known for his

work with the Argentine troupe De

la Guarda) is more acrobatic than

magical. I was more impressed

with how the actors stick their

landings than in how they careen

overhead.

Anderson’s Hook seems intent

on giving Christian Borle’s Black

Stache (from “Peter and the Star-

catchers”) a run for his campy

money. Hook is more of a Gilbert

and Sullivan pirate, a farcical con-

struction winking the audience

into cahoots. Anderson is a

dynamo, but I often felt as though I

were being mugged for applause.

One of my favorite Peter Pan

adaptations is Mabou Mines’ “Pe-

ter and Wendy,” in which the ac-

tress Karen Kandel brought the en-

tire story to life through the ar-

dency of her acting. What’s missing

in “Fly” is trust in the power of sto-

rytelling to create images that can

take flight inside the minds of audi-

ence members.

Wendy’s big number in the sec-

ond act, “Somewhere a Woman,”

left me feeling nothing despite the

beauty and power of Lever’s sing-

ing. But there are simple moments

in the final stages of the character’s

adventure when, alone with herself

or quiet with Peter, the musical re-

veals a tenderness that ought to be

more fully embraced in future pro-

ductions.

“Fly” could use some of the ma-

turity that Wendy comes to realize

allows life to meaningfully soar.

SEAN POPE, left, Lincoln Clauss, Storm Lever and Collin Jeffery revisit the story of Peter Pan in “Fly” at La Jolla Playhouse.

Kevin Berne

THEATER REVIEW

‘Fly’ just doesn’t soar

The irreverent new musical can’t get its storytelling off the ground in La Jolla

latimes.com/arts

CULTURE MONSTER

‘Fly’

Where:La Jolla Playhouse,

Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La

Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and

Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays

and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Satur-

days, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays (call

for exceptions); ends March 29

Tickets:Start at $25

Info:(858) 550-1010 or

lajollaplayhouse.org

Running time:2 hours, 15 minutes

(one intermission)

CHARLES McNULTY
THEATER CRITIC

Imagine an astronaut on the In-
ternational Space Station. Then
imagine her staying up late, mak-
ing things with her hands and
blocking the video transmissions
that allow her colleagues on Earth
to monitor her 24/7.
The freedom she feels is palpa-
ble as you wander through “Digital
Thoughts,” Jessica Stockholder’s
laser-sharp exhibition at 1301PE
gallery in L.A. Each of Stockhold-
er’s 11 inventive assemblages is out
of this world — if not from another
planet then at least from far out in
space.
Some of Stockholder’s constel-
lations of unrelated objects and
materials are no bigger than note-
pads. Some are large, about the
size of tents or picnic tables.
Four hang on the wall like paint-
ings. One stands on the floor like an
ad hoc end table. Most do both,
forming painterly and sculptural
hybrids that defy gravity and blur
the boundaries between 2-D im-
ages and 3-D objects. Most make
an intellectual mess of the idea
that art is best when its various
media are kept separate — and
supposedly equal.
The assemblages are made
from discarded hardware, bits and
pieces of printers, DVD players,

hard drives and the shells and guts

of CPUs as well hardware-store

hardware, including U-bolts, flash-

ing, industrial mesh, synthetic

ropes, buckles and bungee cords.

Tables, chairs and stools also ap-

pear along with lamps, light fix-

tures and fish-eye mirrors. The ma-

terials that kids use for arts-and-

crafts projects, like papier-mâché,

Sculpy and string, are present

along with a gobs of thickly sla-

thered acrylic, oil and enamel

paint, in a rainbow of super-satu-

rated colors.

The loopy circuit of free associa-

tions that Stockholder’s peculiar

inventory generates pales in com-

parison to what she does with the

stuff she finds, buys and assem-

bles. Each of the Chicago-based

artist’s idiosyncratic amalgams of

repurposed parts and misused

supplies is so tautly composed —

so perfectly balanced and so me-

ticulously calibrated — that it feels

as if it’s held together by atomic

bonds too powerful to pull apart

without causing an explosion.

That centrifugal integrity is

what art lovers call formal power,

the relational qualities a work has

with itself. Today, that’s not a par-

ticularly popular way of looking at

art. We’re encouraged to see art in

relation to its context, its history,

the social space that surrounds it.

But Stockholder’s slyly subver-

sive assemblages suggest that the

two approaches work in concert,

complementing each other and

generating unexpected energy.

“Four Eyes” transforms seven

stools and two mirrors into an ab-

stract composition that is as spa-

tially complex — and far more col-

orful — than anything Picasso did

when he and Braque invented

Cubism.

Similarly, “Rounding the Cor-

ner” fuses the freewheeling vora-

ciousness of Rauschenberg’s

mixed-media Combines with de-

liberation and restraint, just about

the only qualities missing from the

influential artist’s oeuvre.

If Matisse’s cut-paper collages

took steroids, they might resemble

Stockholder’s optimistic — but far

from naive — works.

Neither world-weary nor nos-

talgic, the artist’s compressed in-

stallations capture the fleeting

beauty of the moment — before it

disappears.

ART REVIEW

Artist sends ‘Digital Thoughts’ into orbit

Jessica Stockholder’s

inventive painting and

sculpture hybrids exist in

their own spacey world.

THE “FOUR EYES”assemblage by artist Jessica Stockholder consists of seven stools and the two

wall-mounted mirrors at right, all part of her well-balanced “Digital Thoughts” exhibition.

Jessica Stockholder13 01 P E

Jessica

Stockholder

Where:1301PE, 6150 Wilshire

Blvd.

When:Through Saturday.

Info:(323) 938-5822,

http://www.1301pe.com

By David Pagel