Raye Zaragoza was just a child when she first auditioned to play Tiger Lily. It was the late ’90s, yet another “Peter Pan” project was in the works, and though most adaptations had presented Tiger Lily as an offensive caricature, maybe this one would offer a dimensional, dignified depiction of a Native American.
“The only thing I had to do in the audition was giggle at the Lost Boys,” she recalled. In most “Peter Pan” retellings, “her part is so small, and in an incredibly cringe, stereotypical scene that’s a white perspective of what a Native person would be, and it isn’t even based on real language or dance or culture or anything. She’s the only Indigenous character in the story, and yet she’s almost like a mascot.”
Zaragoza — who is of Akimel O’odham, Mexican, Japanese and Taiwanese descent — was relieved she didn’t get that role. But more than 20 years later, she’s originating a fresh take on Tiger Lily in the “Peter Pan” national tour, now playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Sunday, followed by Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Aug. 6 to 18). The musical is a restructuring of Jerome Robbins’ stage show and maintains most of its beloved score, composed by Morris Charlap with additional music by Jule Styne and additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
This production features a new book by Larissa FastHorse that better represents its Native characters, and with Native American actors in the cast, a piece that previously caused harm to Indigenous peoples is now a platform for Native artists. Negotiations are underway to make this version the one that’s available for licensing by theaters and schools moving forward.
“I really don’t think those writers meant any harm, but we just were so asleep as to harming people and it’s amazing how long it took us to wake up,” the new production’s director, Lonny Price, said of the original text. In updating the book, “we didn’t want to be preachy or stand on a soapbox, but we wanted to be fair and equitable to the different cultures we’re representing.”
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“Oftentimes, ‘Peter Pan’ is the first big professional stage show a child might see,” he added. “It’s important that all children can enjoy it, that they can not only fall in love with ‘Peter Pan’ but also the theater itself. And if we can get some of those kids to say, ‘I want to see another one of those,’ then we’ve won on so many levels.”
Producers approached FastHorse in early 2022 about rewriting the musical, itself an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play and 1911 novelization. While beloved for generations — after its debut in 1954, the musical was filmed for NBC three times and repeatedly revived on Broadway — it referred to Neverland’s Indians as “redskins” and included “Ugg-a-Wugg,” a percussive dance number with gibberish lyrics and a silly tone. (Schools have individually tweaked the text or outright canceled shows over this problematic material.)
Larissa FastHorse, who wrote the new “Peter Pan” book, and Raye Zaragoza, who plays Tiger Lily onstage.
(Dan Norman)
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FastHorse — a dual citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and the U.S., a MacArthur grant recipient and the first known female Native American writer of a play produced on Broadway — initially resisted the gig.
“I was scared, because this show could end my career,” she said. “I’m Native American, I still have to be able to go home and work in my community, and I also didn’t want to do wrong by the ‘Peter Pan’ folks either. But the producers gave me so much freedom and latitude, and despite my initial hesitancy, I’m glad I did it. I’m really proud of it.”
The musical’s source material calls the tribe “piccaninny warriors” and phrases their few lines in broken English. In this production, the tribe is made up of various Indigenous peoples from all over the world, each individual the last of their respective tribes and living in Neverland with hopes of returning home someday.
“In Neverland, you don’t grow old, you can basically live forever, so you can also preserve your culture,” said swing, co-fly captain and dance captain Bailey Frankenberg, a Cherokee Nation tribal member and a Choctaw Nation descendant. “It’s a really special way to take the lore of this magical place that already exists, and use it in a way that is helpful for how we can be perceived in this piece.”
The cast collaborated with FastHorse and costume designer Sarafina Bush to envision the Indigenous characters’ names, extinct tribes and onstage clothing, inspired by each of the actors’ ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Their characters’ names and tribes are listed in the show’s program, and FastHorse’s script requests that future stagings do the same with their performers.
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“Let’s be honest, there’ll be towns that don’t have a dozen Native people who can do musical theater,” said FastHorse. “So every person in our tribe plays a version of themselves. They’re from extinct tribes from Mexico or South America or Japan; because we have one white girl in the ensemble, she’s from Eastern Europe, so she’s from an ancient Slavic tribe. This means that, going forward, no one ever has to play redface.”
Nolan Almeida, left, as Peter Pan, Kenny Ramos as Acoma, Raye Zaragoza as Tiger Lily and the rest of the “Peter Pan” cast.
(Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
Neverland’s Indigenous people are led by the new Tiger Lily, a warrior princess who tells jokes, sings, dances and fights, all just as well as Peter, her friendly foe. “Peter Pan says, ‘I’m having fun adventuring all day,’ and a big part of that is facing off with Tiger Lily and her tribe,” FastHorse explained. “She’s now sharing in the adventure as much as Peter is, and having as much fun with it as he is. Yeah, they take it seriously, but this isn’t a bloodthirsty moment. They see each other and they’re having a good time.”
Tiger Lily does it all while wearing a skirt and a half-down hairdo, which she adjusts amid the action. “She’s both strong and feminine. She can defeat a whole band of pirates in a skirt and still wants to make sure her hair looks good,” said Zaragoza. “It’s a huge responsibility to take on this new version of something that was historically harmful, but this Tiger Lily is so different. Little girls have been coming up to me after the show, telling me she’s their favorite and she makes them feel represented and empowered, and that’s something I’ve never felt about this character before.”
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In the original musical, “there was no reason given that the Lost Boys and the Indians were fighting; it was just assumed that you try to kill Indians because they exist, which is the reality of this country,” lamented FastHorse. The new book roots the two groups’ conflict in petty theft and childish boy-girl annoyances, and resolves it in a new Act I finale number, with music from Styne, Comden and Green’s short-lived 1961 musical “Subways Are for Sleeping” and new lyrics by Adolph Green’s daughter, Amanda Green.
Titled “Friends Forever,” the “Ugg-a-Wugg” replacement is an upbeat friendship dance, in which the Lost Boys and the Indigenous people teach each other moves — with the latter’s dancing inspired by the elements, versus the traditions of any specific tribe — and blend them into one routine. “By putting them together in this beautiful way,” Price said of Lorin Latarro’s choreography, “they’re not only uniting in the lyrics and the story, but also in this dance.”
Raye Zaragoza plays a new take on Tiger Lily in the “Peter Pan” national tour.
( From Broadway in Hollywood)
FastHorse was also tasked with trimming the musical’s three-hour run time and minimizing the misogyny. Wendy Darling (Hawa Kamara) is now an aspiring surgeon who volunteers to sew on Peter’s shadow and nudges everyone to take vitamins. “In the original, Wendy works the whole time she’s in Neverland — cooking, cleaning, sewing — because of the assumption that serving men was fun and fulfilling for her,” said FastHorse. “We had to fix that reason for her to believably enjoy this place.”
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And for the first time, Wendy sings, dances, fights and even has a conversation with Tiger Lily. “They’ve never spoken to each other before,” said the playwright. “It seems so small, but to have two women speak without a man present happens so infrequently in these older shows. I fought hard for it, and it got cut down a little bit, but I’m glad it’s in there.”
This production also cast Peter — previously played onstage by Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby — with a young, male actor, Nolan Almeida. “Kids are very aware of gender now, and since our story doesn’t go into those conversations, it didn’t feel right to continue that tradition,” said Price.
The show also added back in “When I Went Home,” a song “that explains his emotional unavailability because he’s been so hurt,” added Price. “It was in the original show, but it was cut on the road because Mary Martin thought it was too sad for the children, but children today can take some sadness, they’ve experienced it in their world.”
Nolan Almeida as Peter Pan, center, and the cast of “Peter Pan.”
(Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
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FastHorse surprised producers by placing “Peter Pan” in contemporary America, ridding the opening and closing scenes in the Darling home of their 1950s London setting. The script encourages future stagings to consider their setting “quite broadly, with all socio economic levels, areas of the country, races, cultures, and types of families as the basis for what is truly universal.”
“Where I’m from in South Dakota, London is so unbelievably foreign, and to lots of children around the world, London is imperialism and the cause of the genocide of their people,” FastHorse said. “In this process, there was definitely some pushback, a fear that losing London and the period was going to be a problem. But it was important to me that any child going to this show could believe they could look out their window and see Peter fly by.”
The national tour, which began in late 2023 and continues through mid-2025, might be the first with its own land acknowledgment, recorded for each stop by FastHorse herself. So far, it’s traveled without any major backlash, just the occasional complaint about the cast’s diversity. (“We have a Darling family with several ethnicities in it, and if you can’t be OK with an ethnically diverse family, there’s nothing I can do for you,” FastHorse said.)
Its hit status should be a wake-up call to the industry’s decision makers, said ensemble actor Kenny Ramos, who is from the Barona Band of Mission Indians/Kumeyaay Nation and grew up on the Barona Indian Reservation. “It’s great that we have this Broadway-caliber musical production and this correction of a piece that was so problematic to the point where it basically became unproducible,” he said. “And yet, there are so many Native works out there that are not being produced.
“I hope that this successful production is a reminder that there’s Native talent out there, that Native stories are for everyone, and that the American musical theater is a place for Native people.”
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‘Peter Pan’
Where: Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Through July 28. Cost: $57 and up. Info: (800) 982-2787, broadwayinhollywood.com or ticketmaster.com Running time: 2 hours and 10 minutes, with one intermission
Also in Costa Mesa: Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive. When: Aug. 6-18. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays Cost: $33 and up Info: (714) 556-2787, scfta.org
NEW YORK (OSV News) – “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (20th Century), the third film in the always visually rich franchise that got its start in 2009, brings forward thematic elements that had previously been kept in the background and that viewers of faith will find it impossible to accept and difficult to dismiss. As a result, it requires careful evaluation by mature movie fans.
Against the recurring background of the fictional moon Pandora, the saga of the family whose fortunes were chronicled in the earlier chapters continues. The clan consists of dad Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) as well as their three surviving children, teens Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and tyke Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss).
Rounding out the household is Jake and Neytiri’s adolescent adopted son, Spider (Jack Champion).
As veterans of the earlier outings will know, Jake was originally a human and a Marine. But, via an avatar, he eventually embraced the identity of Neytiri’s Pandoran tribe, the Na’vi. While their biological kids are to all appearances Na’vi — a towering race with blue skins and tails — Spider is human and requires a breathing mask to survive on Pandora.
Lo’ak is guilt-ridden over his role in the death of his older brother, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), and wants to redeem himself by proving his worth as a warrior. Kiri is frustrated that, despite her evident spiritual gifts, she’s unable to connect with Eywa, the mother goddess the Na’vi worship.
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For his part, Jake is worried about Spider’s future — Neteyam’s death has left the still-grieving Neytiri with a hatred of the “Sky people,” as Earthlings are known on Pandora. He also has to contend with the ongoing threat posed by his potentially deadly rivalry with his former Marine comrade, Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who is also Spider’s estranged father.
As if all that weren’t enough, a further challenge arises when the Metkayina, the sea-oriented Pandorans with whom Jake et al. have taken refuge, are attacked by the fierce fire-centric Mangkwan, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin), a malevolent sorceress. A three hour-plus running time is required to tie up these varied strands.
Along the way, the religion adhered to by the main characters becomes more prominent than in previous installments. Thus Eywa is both present on screen and active in the plot. Additionally, Kiri is revealed to have been the product of a virginal conception.
Director and co-writer (with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) James Cameron’s extension of his blockbuster series, accordingly, not only includes material uncomfortable at best for Christians but also seems incongruent, overall, with monotheistic belief. Even well-catechized grown-ups, therefore, should approach this sprawling addition to Cameron’s epic with caution.
The film contains nonscriptural beliefs and practices, constant stylized but often intense combat violence with brief gore, scenes of torture, narcotics use, partial nudity, a couple of mild oaths, at least one rough term, numerous crude and a handful of crass expressions and an obscene gesture. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
My name is Jon Halperin. I booked and managed Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006. It started by accident while I was running a one-person record label. I went to the club to see the band Melee perform and the prior talent buyer for the club had just quit that day. I told owner Tim Hill I’d do it (having only booked three shows ever at a coffee shop). We slept on it, and I was hired the next day.
I joined Ron Martinez (of Final Conflict). He was booking the punk and hardcore shows. I booked the indie, ska, emo, screamo and pop punk stuff. We made a great team. Best work-wife ever.
Story time. My friend Ikey Owens (RIP) hit me up and told me that he and the guys from At the Drive In were going to be starting a new band. I’d booked Defacto (their dub project) before, and we agreed to throw them on a show and just bill it as “Defacto.” There were maybe 200 people there to see the first show for a band that would soon be known as the Mars Volta.
That wasn’t out of the ordinary. Chain Reaction had many artists grace that stage that went on to bigger things: Death Cab for Cutie, Avenged Sevenfold, Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Pierce the Veil, My Morning Jacket. The list goes on and on.
Jon Halperin, who booked Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006, stands in front of the club during its heyday.
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(From Jon Halperin)
I used to make a deal with the kids. Buy a ticket to “X” show, and if you didn’t like the band, I’d refund you. I never had to. I knew my audience and they trusted my curation of the room. … It was by the kids, for the kids, except I was 30 at the time. I had to think like a teenager. My friend Brian once called me “Peter Pan.”
Halfway through my reign, social media became a thing. There was Friendster and a bit later MySpace. YouTube stated just a few years after. But those first few years of me at the venue, it was word of mouth. It was paper fliers dropped off at coffee shops and record stores. It was the flier in the venue window. It was Mean Street Magazine and Skratch Magazine.
I’d tease the press when they wanted to review a show. If you don’t show up with a pen and paper, you aren’t getting in (sorry, Kelli).
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Most music industry went to the Los Angeles show, but smart industry came to us. Countless acts got signed following their shows. You’d often see the band meeting with a label in the parking lot near their tour van.
It was a dry room when I was there. No booze or weed whatsoever. We made only one exception to the weed rule. An artist in a band with Crohn’s disease who traveled with a nurse. Not saying bands didn’t drink backstage, on stage, in their vans (we rarely had buses), but what we didn’t see didn’t happen.
Touche Amoré performing at Chain Reaction in 2010.
(Joe Calixto)
We were often referred to as the “CBGB’s of the West,” and for a lot of bands, locals and touring acts alike, we were just that. We were the epicenter. There were other venues of course, but for some reason, we were the venue to play. Showcase Theater in Corona was edging toward its demise. Koo’s Cafe in Santa Ana was done. Back Alley in Fullerton wasn’t active. Galaxy Theater [in Santa Ana] was still, well, the Galaxy. There was no House of Blues Anaheim. Bands would drive a thousand miles to play one show at Chain Reaction. We were where the local bands started as first of four on a bill and would be headlining us within a year. We were their jumping-off point. We were where the kids came out. The real fans, many of whom started bands themselves.
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Thankfully, there are other smaller venues out there today fostering the all-ages scene: Programme Skate in Fullerton, the Locker Room at Garden AMP [in Garden Grove], Toxic Toast in Long Beach, the Haven Pomona, but it’s just not the same. It was a moment in time. A time that will be forgotten in a few decades, but for today, my social media is being inundated with memories of a room that was a second home for thousands of kids.
Zero regrets. It was the best and worst times of my life. Working a day gig and then heading to the venue nearly every day of the week was rough. Relationships and friendships were hard, being that I couldn’t go out at night. I couldn’t get a pet. I was constantly tired. But I wouldn’t trade those six years for the world.
If this week’s Telugu release Gurram Paapi Reddy were a human, it would most likely be a teenager. It bursts with energy, overflowing with ideas and wearing its unabashed enthusiasm like a badge of honour. The audience too might end up surrendering to its infectious energy. Yet, like a distracted teenager, the film also gets so enamoured by its very idea that it loses control and does not know where to stop.
The vibe is eerily similar to Jathi Ratnalu early on. Again, Brahmanandam (as Vaidyanathan), is a judge. Faria Abdullah, the actress in the former film, is the only female presence in the lead lineup here. The other oddball male characters — Gurram Paapi Reddy (Naresh Agastya), Chilipi (Vamshidhar Goud), Goyyi (Jeevan Kumar) and Military (Rajkumar Kasireddy) — are the not-so-smart ones who get entangled in a mess.
The similarities end there. Brahmanandam, who is in terrific form, sets the tone of the comedy, doling out harsh punishments to petty criminals, not for their crimes, but for their sheer stupidity in getting caught. Gurram, Chilipi, Goyyi and Military are the victims who reunite after their jail term. This time, they are joined by Soudamini (Faria).
Storyline: A gang of four ex-convicts swap dead bodies for easy money and land in a ‘royal’ mess.
While their earlier heist at a jewellery store goes terribly wrong, the new plan is strangely simple. The four men need to swap a dead body from Srisailam with another body in a graveyard in Hyderabad for a meagre sum. While they execute it, albeit with difficulty, it gets messy when the motive behind the swap comes to the fore, dating back to a royal gift from the pre-Independence era.
The key conflict is established prior to the intermission, but newer problems surface later. Though the story idea is deceptively straightforward, the director builds many layers to the fun quotient and it’s evident that he treats comedy like serious business.
The actors react to the situations without trying too hard to impress. The scenes are not only thematically funny, but also packed with outrageously hilarious one-liners. Every time one feels the film’s trajectory is sorted, there is a surprise. The screenplay is busy with backstories and subplots.
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The second hour could have benefited from some economy in writing. Past connections are strung together, newer characters and their complexities are introduced, there are backup plans, flashbacks and a song is thrown into the mix. Thankfully, the humour quotient remains unaffected. Some breather would have been welcome.
The subplots involving Sangi Reddy, particularly the courtroom proceedings, and Markandeya Raju’s son crowd the screenplay, leaving the viewers with too many dots to connect. It’s inevitable for some restlessness to creep in towards the final 45 minutes — a stretch packed with several events and coincidences. A clever climax salvages the film.
Gurram Paapi Reddy is aware of the crucial balance between the goofiness of its characters and the seriousness of the plot. Too many characters and a packed, expansive narrative make the film exhausting, given its 160-minute runtime.
Naresh Agastya, Vamshidhar Goud, Faria Abdullah, Jeevan Kumar and Rajkumar Kasireddy share wonderful on-screen camaraderie and get ample scope to shine individually too. Yogi Babu, as a convict with night-blindness, brings the roof down even when he doesn’t dub for himself. Motta Rajendran’s antics look repetitive at times, though they land well.
This is also among Brahmanandam’s best on-screen appearances in recent times. It’s an absolute joy to see the veteran actor ever-hungry to prove his worth when he senses potential in a scene. John Vijay is in dire need of reinvention with his dialogue delivery and body language. Both songs in the film, composed by Krishna Saurabh, though well-shot, feel abrupt.
A narrative with lesser flab would have amplified the film’s impact. The makers tease the audience with a potential sequel idea, but appreciably it does not appear forced. The film is also complete in itself.
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Gurram Paapi Reddy is a smartly written and performed con-comedy that delivers laughs aplenty, though a few segments become indulgent.
