Peter Pan

James M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" will fly back to the Olney Theatre Center stage for a holiday run, opening tomorrow. First produced at Olney in 1997, this is the non-musical adaptation of Barrie's classic 1904 play about a boy who refuses to grow up.This time around, the title role is being played by Carolyn Pasquantonio, who portrayed Wendy in 1997. Traber Burns plays the dual roles of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook, and Helen Hedman returns to the role of Mrs. Darling. The production is co-directed by Jim Petosa and David Bryan Jackson.

Sharon Brazell from Severna Park was hoping someone would have the recipe for the hush puppies that were served at the Peter Pan Inn in Urbana. The restaurant, which closed in 1986, was famous for its plentiful family-style meals and beautiful setting. Brazell said her family, like many in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, would make the drive to the country restaurant near Frederick for special occasions to enjoy the food and setting, which included peacocks parading in the gardens.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. -- Peter Pan, the fairy tale character who flies through the sky and battles with pirates, has been grounded by a new foe: the 1990s debate over multiculturalism.A middle school in Southampton canceled last month its production of "Peter Pan," scheduled to open last weekend, because administrators found that its portrayal of Indians was offensive to members of the Shinnecock tribe, whose reservation is on the town's border and whose children make up about 9 percent of the district's student body.

J.M. Barrie, creator of "Peter Pan," deserves wider recognition for his other works. Rep Stage is doing its part with the revival of two subtly emotional, World War I-vintage plays, deftly directed by Michael Stebbins. "The New World," from 1915, takes place in a London drawing room. "Rogie" Torrance is to depart soon for the army. His mother wants him to have quality time alone with his father first, but this is a family with major hang-ups about closeness. Bill Largess is telling as the buttoned-up father.

J. M. Barrie's classic 1904 play, "Peter Pan," need not necessarily be just for kids. But the production at Olney Theatre Center essentially is.Although the play has some intriguing adult themes -- intriguing enough to have had psychological syndromes named for them -- Olney's production just hasn't grown up. Director Jim Petosa seems to have cartoons in mind, not literature, judging from the overly broad portrayals he elicits from most of the pirates, not...

Daring, mischievous, adventurous and unforgettable, Peter Pan is the boy who refuses to grow up. Prior to residing in Neverland, second star to the right and straight on till morning, Peter lived with the fairies in Kensington Gardens. Peter spends his time flying, traveling, sparring with Captain Hook, and playing with the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell and the Darling children.Peter Pan isn't just the star of stage, screen and animation. He stars in books, too. Here are some of them:* "Peter Pan to the Rescue: Walt Disney," by Golden Look-Look Books* "Peter Pan and Wendy," by J.M. Barrie* "Peter Pan: Where are Wendy's Brothers?"

THE CATHY RIGBY ''Peter Pan'' that opened last night at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre is a lively, bouncy presentation, and it isn't just because Rigby, a former Olympic gymnast, is appearing in the lead role. She is certainly an asset, but she isn't the only one; the direction is another. Cast members Stephen Hanan, Lauren Thompson and Cindy Robinson also turn in strong performances.Fran Soeder did the staging, and he has this ''Peter Pan'' moving at a lively pace. At yesterday's matinee, it ran little more than two and one-half hours, and that included the post-curtain business which you will certainly want to see, so don't be too eager to leave the place.

Mary Martin claimed she couldn't remember a day when she didn't want to be Peter Pan.And although the actress, who died yesterday at age 76, performed many other notable roles in a career spanning five decades, it is as Peter Pan that she will be best remembered.At yesterday's sold-out matinee at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, "Peter Pan's" latest star, Cathy Rigby, came out in street clothes before the curtain went up and, with tears in her eyes, informed the audience of Miss Martin's death.

Cathy Rigby may be the bestest flyingest Peter Pan ever. In the Broadway-bound production that opened at the Mechanic Theatre last night, she dips, she soars, she spins and spins and spins, and all at the highest of heights.But that won't surprise anyone who watched the former gymnast in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics.The question is: Does her singing and acting soar?Ms. Rigby's acting definitely has the joyful spunk to make audiences cheer for the boy who wouldn't grow up. If her singing has more character than lyricism, well, keep in mind that she is playing a boy, not a diva.

Cathy Rigby has a lot to crow about.These days she's crowing eight times a week as the title character in the national tour of "Peter Pan," which begins a one-month run at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre Tuesday.The production -- now midway through a 58-city tour -- also will mark Ms. Rigby's Broadway debut when it arrives at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre for a six-week engagement beginning Dec. 11.A two-time Olympic gymnast and the first American woman to win a medal in world gymnastics competition, the 37-year-old mother of four can be proud of her personal life as well.

Before "Bandslam" came along, Maryland-bred actor Gaelan Connell's biggest role was Michael Darling in Irene Lewis' 2002 Center Stage production of "Peter Pan." "I got to fly," he whoops. "It was really cool. They had pirates and people flying across the stage and it was very magical. If you can imagine me at age 13, a much smaller me with even bigger hair. ..." Connell stops and laughs at the "surreality" of it all. He's gone from levitating in his jammies to playing the character in "Bandslam" who wins the trust of Aly Michalka and the heart of Vanessa Hudgens.

POP MUSIC Truckers tour Drive-By Truckers hail from Athens, Ga., and sport a sound that melds brash Southern hard rock with erudite lyrics. The band's style deepens on its latest album, the solid Brighter Than Creation's Dark, released early last year. The band performs tomorrow at Recher Theatre, 512 York Road, Towson. Tickets are $25. Call 410-547-7328 or go to ticketmaster.com. FILM 'Hook' The Rotunda Cinematheque is presenting a free showing at 10 a.m. Saturday of Hook, Steven Spielberg's 1991 movie about a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams)

In a production where the audience is asked to clap if it believes in magic and fairies, a dress rehearsal of Peter Pan easily accomplished its goal last week in the new, $1.8 million Children's Theatre of Annapolis on Broadneck Peninsula. Helping to create the magic is Robert Kauffman, the 71-year-old former Anne Arundel Community College performing arts chairman who was lured out of retirement by CTA to direct the opening production for its 286-seat theater. This is the same show that capped his 30-year AACC career in November 2002, a few months before his retirement.

Every great magical fantasy contains a critical moment that tests the audience's belief, whether it's the near-death of a fairy in Peter Pan or the death and resurrection of a lion in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It usually comes well into the action, when the creators have already sucked us into a heady mixture of mythology and reverie. When similar movies fizzle, such as the recent The Seeker: The Dark is Rising and today's opening, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, it's often because of impatience: The filmmakers are like antsy little boys, itching to get to "the good stuff," not realizing that the stuff only gets good after it's been seasoned and prepared for. Magical movies, like poetic dramas, in an odd way need to be tough-minded: For us to suspend our disbelief, they must set out some underlying rule for the marvels, miracles and metaphors they spread out before us. Set in a magic toy store, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium starts out several feet above the ground and never touches terra firma as it lays out the final days of the wonder-working title character.

Matt DeCaro, a junior at Wilde Lake High School, had been rehearsing the same line for weeks: "Second to the right, and straight on to morning," he said. But this time, when he pointed to the sky, his body slowly lifted off the floor. He was flying back and forth across the stage, and so were the actors playing the three Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael. Wilde Lake, home to the 750-seat Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts, has long been known for the high quality of its student productions.

Some of the most provocative and cutting-edge theater around these days is being mounted by volunteer actors working on tiny stages with less than 100 seats, where the production budget essentially consists of a ball of twine and two pieces of tape. Welcome to the weirdly exhilarating world of Baltimore's community theater, where a sofa can spend more time on stage than in its owner's living room, and where practitioners jealously guard their secret recipe for stage blood. In the coming season, the latter should be in great demand: Baltimore community theaters shows tend to go for the jugular.

In video the seasons come and go as they do everywhere, if not always in sync with seasons in other entertainments with which video competes for time and attention.Early autumn, for example, with a new TV season unfolding, is usually a slower period in video stores. But this fall there are some big titles to promote -- three principal specimens being "Pretty Woman," with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, one of the best box-office performers of all time (Oct. 19); "Total Recall," with Arnold Schwarzenegger (Nov.

Steven Spielberg has finally assembled his all-star cast for ''Hook,'' the continued adventures of Peter Pan.2 ''Hook'' is scheduled for release in December.*''Kiss Me, Kate'' may have the best score Cole Porter ever did. It also one of the most enjoyable musical comedies ever written for the stage. For reasons difficult to explain, most dinner theaters stay away from it.Act 2 is doing it at the moment. They're not afraid to tackle it, and they do rather well with it. Some of the performers are quite good, and others are less than that.

LOVE THOSE Baldwin brothers! The ones who are up, the ones who are down. These Long Island guys have made their mark on show biz. Alec is just wonderful in the 30 Rock series where his irascible character is eating his way through, with the gifted Elaine Stritch as his worrisome mother. (Both actors are Emmy nominated.) ... Then there's William's TV debut coming on ABC's Dirty Sexy Money. Here the talented William will play an attorney from a rich power family called the Darlings (Shades of Peter Pan!

FAST FOOD NATION -- 20th Century Fox / $27.98 Richard Linklater takes a quasi-fictional approach to a decidedly nonfiction book, Fast Food Nation, the Inconvenient Truth of the fast-food industry. In this telling, written by Linklater and the book's author, Eric Schlosser, a hamburger chain called Mickey's is a rapacious conglomerate too concerned with profit to bother with such details as the welfare of its employees, many of them illegal immigrants who are abused and discarded like so many pieces of gristle.