Tom Hiddleston Discusses Singing On Screen & Playing Captain Hook In THE PIRATE FAIRY

BROADWAY WORLD
 👤by Pat Cerasaro
April 9, 2014

A new look behind the scenes at the charismatic stage and screen star Tom Hiddleston headlining the new animated musical release THE PIRATE FAIRY, co-starring Broadway's own Megan Hilty, is now available to view in the form of a new interview.

The official description of THE PIRATE FAIRY is as follows: "From the world of Peter Pan comes The Pirate Fairy, a swashbuckling new adventure about Zarina (voice of Christina Hendricks), a smart and ambitious dust-keeper fairy who's captivated by Blue Pixie Dust and its endless possibilities. When Zarina's wild ideas get her into trouble, she flees Pixie Hollow and joins forces with the scheming pirates of Skull Rock, who make her captain of their ship.

Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmovies/article/Tom-Hiddleston-Discusses-Singing-On-Screen-Playing-Captain-Hook-In-THE-PIRATE-FAIRY-20140409#1BFWq0ZPAPvhugfV.99

Judi Dench: Peter and Alice, Noel Coward Theatre, review (TELEGRAPH)

Peter and Alice, starring Skyfall's Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, is a moving theatrical chamber piece which couldn't be further removed from the Bond blockbuster, says Charles Spencer.

By Charles Spencer7:00AM GMT 26 Mar 2013

If you had to imagine a work that was the complete antithesis of the brilliant Bond blockbuster, Skyfall, it might resemble Peter and Alice, a moving, 90-minute theatrical chamber piece about childhood, growing up and the pressure of literary immortality.

Yet it has been written by John Logan, one of the scriptwriters on Skyfall, and stars Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw who play M and Q in 007’s latest adventure.

They both give beautiful, heart-catching performances in this haunting play that sounds profound notes of loss and grief.

The piece was inspired by a small footnote in literary history. In 1932, Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who was the model for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, met Peter Llewellyn Davies, one of five brothers into whose lives JM Barrie insinuated himself, and who inspired Peter Pan. Barrie wrote that he created the young boy who never grew up “by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a flame” but it was Peter who bore the name of the character that was to haunt and trouble him throughout his unhappy life.

The play shows Peter and Alice meeting in the dusty backroom of a bookshop where Alice is to open an exhibition celebrating Carroll’s centenary. Peter is there because he is a publisher and hopes to get a book out of her. At first Alice, now 80, is haughty. “You’re presumptuous,” she tells Peter, and no actress is more capable of suggesting withering disdain in just two words than Dame Judi. But Peter perseveres and they talk about the way their lives have been marked and to different extents marred by the writers and the books that trapped them in immortal youth.

READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/9952907/Peter-and-Alice-Noel-Coward-Theatre-review.html

"Cheers" Actor Co-Directs Broadway Hit, "Peter and the Starcatcher" by Roger Friedman, Contributor (FORBES)

What a terrible way to get you, dear reader, into this story.

But Roger Rees, who played British magnate Robin Colcord on “Cheers,” is the co-director (with Alex Timbers) of “Peter and the Starcatcher” on Broadway.

The hilarious and magnificent play with music opened on Sunday night, and it’s a winner. Christian Borle, from the NBC series “Smash” and a long list of Broadway credits, literally steals the show, the theater and everything around him as the comic villain in this sort of re-telling or new-telling of the tale of Peter became Peter Pan.

This a big season of “new” Broadway stars like Borle, Steve Kazee, Jeremy Jordan, Josh Young, and, of course, Michael Cerveris.


READ MORE:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerfriedman/2012/04/16/cheers-actor-co-directs-broadway-hit-peter-and-the-starcatcher/

Review: 'Neverland'

televisionReview

                                                                                                                    

‘Neverland’ fantasizes about what went into J.M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan' characters

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Originally Published: Thursday, December 1 2011, 8:00 AM

Syfy

Q’orianka Kilcher as Aaya and Charlie Rowe as Peter in ‘Neverland’

• Network / Air Date: Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m., Syfy

“Neverland,” a new prequel to the beloved story of Peter Pan, weaves a complex, often disturbing tale demanding considerably more of its audience than the breezy musical versions that regularly fly across our theater stages.

It’s also packed with action, much of it violent, and even more packed with special effects — though the visual effects budget for a four-hour TV miniseries falls well below the level available for a “Harry Potter” or Steven Spielberg movie.

In the end it may wear down viewers who have only a passing attachment to Peter Pan. But it should stimulate lively discussion among those with a deeper fascination. Michael Jackson, who named his fantasy estate “Neverland,” is hardly the only boy drawn deeply to Peter’s story.

Like many fantasy tales from childhood, “Peter Pan” originally had an undertone of social commentary that made it much darker than simply the adventures of a boy who can fly and doesn’t want to grow up.

J.M. Barrie’s original 1902 book and 1904 play positioned Peter and the Lost Boys, their older friend Wendy, Captain Hook and other characters as representative figures from contemporary British society. Even the good ones were often selfish and nasty, and Barrie seemed to suggest a couple of things: that innocent children can be cruel and that the larger society could be troublingly indifferent to children left adrift.

“Neverland,” which launches Sunday night at 9 and finishes Monday, plays on these troubling roots while also exploring man’s inability, even in the theoretically carefree world of Neverland, to live in harmony and respect. Even when there’s enough for everyone, someone wants more.

The back story also adds new shades of gray to Barrie’s implicit debate about the desirability of growing up.

The third Syfy collaboration between writer/director Nick Willing and executive producer Robert Halmi Sr., “Neverland” begins like a Dickens story, with Peter and his friends scrambling to stay alive on the streets of London.

Their anchor is James Hook (Rhys Ifans), a fallen aristocrat determined to win back his position in society even while he trains the boys to hustle and steal.

Peter (Charlie Rowe) has good instincts, particularly toward the other boys. He also wants to grow up to be the next Hook.

He’s a kid headed for trouble until Hook steers them to a magical orb that sends them all to

Neverland, a world full of Indians, pirates and woodland spirits — yes, including Tinker Bell, voiced here by Keira Knightley.

Viewers have to start paying serious attention at this point, as a large cast of characters swirl through multiple dramas that stretch over two worlds.

The second half breaks out the full gauntlet of special effects as it steers the story toward the place we previously knew as the story’s starting point, with Hook as a pirate captain and Peter preparing to weigh the merits of growing up against staying a boy forever.

“Neverland” doesn’t presume to settle the question. It does suggest the call might be tougher for Peter than we realized.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/neverland-fantasizes-m-barrie-peter-pan-characters-article-1.984499#ixzz1fJCqBPmb