photo by Tim Fuller

 A trio of lost boys find sanctuary under the care of Molly Aster (Chelsey Jean Smith) in the fanciful "Peter and the Starcatcher." 

Time to brush up on your “Peter Pan,” so you can properly appreciate the prequel “Peter and the Starcatcher” where Peter, one of the orphaned Lost Boys, first learns to fly, meets a roguish pirate captain and the flitty flash of Tinkerbell while setting the stage for the Rogue Theatre's most charming and delightful production.

Please know that this prequel is not so much a play for children to embrace the unexpected insights of a theatrical experience, as it is a play intended to encourage adults of a certain age to get back in touch with the distant memories of their own childhood.

The “Peter” who is destined to become Peter Pan in his next life is played by Hunter Hnat, a grumpy loner tossed in with two other equally hapless parent-less  London lads.

Cynthia Meier is directing this imagination-stretching fantasy that does not so much tell a story as create an experience eagerly embracing the challenge to encourage long-ago grownups to forget all their adult responsibilities and start fluffing up their own memories of being boys and girls who feel certain their own lives will become full of the most exciting adventures.

As is the Rogue's tradition to stimulate its audience by using mere hints of reality so each person can activate their own mindfulness to fill in the details, Meier creates stuffy British naval officers and their tall masted ships – one named “Neverland” that gets shipwrecked and splits in two. Ensuing incidents provide additional clues to key elements in J.M. Barrie's own beloved classic.

Of course everyone is watching for the sharp-toothed crocodile and that ticking clock. They won't be disappointed.

Playing major supporting roles are Matt Walley as the treacherous pirate leader Black Stache, and Chelsey Jean Smith as the take- charge female, Molly Aster.

A cast of 12 covers 16 roles, filling out essential brush strokes to the story's pecking order and other customs of England's male-dominated nineteenth century society.

Here's one tip, don't be late to take your seat for Act Two. It opens with a chorus line of mermaids flipping the bright colors of their fluorescent tails. You don't want to miss that.

“Peter and the Starcatcher” plays through Feb. 1 in The Rogue Theatre at the Historic Y, 300 E. University Blvd., running two hours 20 minutes including a 10-minute intermission. For details and reservations, visit www.theroguetheatre.org

As a theatrical performance, the conversations between turbulent Marjorie and mechanical Walter are brilliantly performed. Playwright Jordan Harrison has constructed “Marjorie Prime” so cleverly, and director Christopher Johnson puts so much attention to the most subtle details, we come away believing reality can indeed exist in many shades of imagination.

Completing the cast are Carley Elizabeth Preston and Matt Walley as Marjorie's tense daughter Tess and her goodhearted husband Jon. Tess is equally as mercurial as her mom in abrupt mood shifts. Slipping into middle age Tess faces her own dystopia that she never had a warm relationship with her mother.

Every conversation between the two always ends in a bickering, sputtering argument. For both women, family life exists more in their head than in their hearts. In one series of short bursts, Preston brilliantly leaps from crisis conclusion to crisis combustion.

So we in the audience are left to ponder, does it really matter what happened in the past? Or does what we remember become more important than what actually happened?

ing in various combinations deliver one intense rendition after another filled with their personal hopes for some relief, offering 27 blues flavored pieces straight from the 1930s gut of Depression Era struggles in gritty cities, nearly 100 years ago.

Award winning Sheldon Epps first conceived of this revue in 1980, opening a successful Broadway run in 1982, followed by an equally popular London production in 1987.

Epps found ways to blend the music of such established composers as Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer with the popular blues success of marque names like Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Bessie Smith and others.

From the evergreen favorites “Lush Life” and “Stompin' at the Savoy” to the sly double entendre of “Take Me For A Buggy Ride” to the equally defiant “Wild Women Don't Have the Blues,” no heart left wanting goes unexamined.

Think of this indigo journey as a musical confessional so convincing in its search for sweet release, the capacity audience on opening night at the downtown Temple of Music and Art jumped to its feet in a standing ovation of the joyful discovery to learn what is meant by making it hurt so good.

This remarkable metaphor of a religious experience is carried out in the soaring stage design of Edward E. Haynes Jr. A towering church-like arc is filled with patterned columns that could also represent endless towers of faceless apartment buildings in a shadowy urban setting.

Included in the stage design are setups representing four generic apartments flaunting their ordinariness in cold concern for these star-crossed performers.

Each is given a descriptive title rather than a name. They are: The Lady from the Road (Roz White), The Woman of the World (April Nixon), The Girl with a Date (Camryn Hamm) and The Man in the Saloon (Darryl Reuben Hall). As the titles imply, each of these women represents all women at different stages in their lives.

The man, presumably, stands for all men who end up by themselves in a bar.

There is no dialogue or plot per se but each song is self-contained, telling its own story, adding another chapter to the challenging life of being female.

“Blues in the Night” runs through Feb. 15, with performances at various times Tuesdays through Sundays in the downtown Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Run time is approximately two hours, including intermission.

Tickets are $33-$113. For additional details and reservations, 833-ATC-SEAT (282-7328) or online, atc.org

Gaslight photo 

Another eager audience settles into the pine paneled theater to start their new  year with comic western history and free popcorn.

This Gaslight Theatre classic has returned in a new production that flaunts its soaring wiles across a curtained stage of high notes and evil intentions.