Catching Stars with Will McGarrahan

If we're going to talk about "Peter and the Starcatcher," playing through June 26 at the Lyric Stage, there's something we need to get straight right off the bat.

"First of all, it's not a musical," muses longtime Boston stage fave Will McGarrahan, a veteran of numerous productions at the Lyric. "I would call it a play with music."

If anyone would know, it's McGarrahan, who appeared at the Lyric this time two years ago in the Spiro Veloudos-directed production of Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods." McGarrahan has graced area stages in a variety of roles, from drama ("A Raisin in the Sun") to comedy ("The Drowsy Chaperone") to big musicals ("The Temperamentals"). McGarrahan has also appeared in "Grey Gardens," "The Moon for the Misbegotten," "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," and many other area productions.

"There are a couple of big songs in it; there are lots of song snippets; it is heavily underscored by a percussionist and piano player throughout, but it is not structured like a musical, and most of the songs are not really used as songs would be in a musical," McGarrahan continues. "And yet, there's a lot of the energy that we associate with musicals in it."

How could it be otherwise? "Peter and the Starcatcher" is a prequel -- or, as (spoiler alert!) McGarrahan makes clear in a moment, an origin story -- for one of the most iconic characters in English language literature: Peter Pan, a magical boy who refuses ever to grow up. Like "Wicked" before it, this prequel to a beloved children's classic is based on a modern novel.

" 'Peter and the Starcatchers' is the name of the young adult novel on which the play is based," McGarrahan notes of the 2004 Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson prequel to J. M. Barrie's "Peter and Wendy," which itself was a play (in 1904) well before Barrie recast the story in novel form (1911).

"It's sort of what we would call an origin story of Peter," McGarrahan goes on to say. "It was a series of books - I think there were three [sequels after the original book]. They were for young adults. They were pretty sincere and straightforward. There was lots of adventure and fun characters and everything. They took that and they adapted it to the stage using story theater techniques.

"From my understanding," McGarrahan adds, "when they were workshopping it, they didn't even have a script yet; they were using the ideas from the book and creating images using whatever they had in the rehearsal room. And then they wrote a script around what they were developing, and continued it in that way.

"The tone is extremely different in the stage show compared to the book," McGarrahan observes. "The play is much more antic and fun. It has heart to it, but it doesn't wear its heart on its sleeve the way the book does."

From hit play to beloved children's novel, and then to any number of films, TV projects, and stage revivals, to a tetralogy of modern novels, to this, a play with music that has snagged five Tony Awards. The ginger-haired flying juvenile in fanciful green tights is more ubiquitous now than ever before, and why is that?

"Peter Pan won't die," McGarrahan says. "Just like he won't grow up. Peter Pan is something that we continue to hold on to as a myth that is important to us. Why is that? I don't know; certainly, I think there's a connection to the characters, and not just the main character of Peter Pan but the ancillary characters as well. And I also think the idea, the desire, the wish to not grow up is something that I think adults hold on to and kids think about."

When you're dealing with a character so seemingly immortal as Peter Pan, he's going to be evergreen no matter what. But the idea of writing a play by workshopping it into existence? That seems fairly modern. It also seems to be something of a trend these days; after all, another Lyric Stage production from this season, "Mr. Burns," came into being through just such a process.

"Yes, it's very interesting," the actor muses. "I think they started working on it in Williamstown, where Roger Rees was the artistic director at the time; and then they brought in Rick Elice to write the script."

Also interesting is McGarrahan's role.

"The main character I play is Mrs. Bumbrake, who is the nanny to Molly, one of the main characters. Mrs. Bumbrake is on the ship with Molly when they head off on their adventure. But we all play storytellers, in addition to the characters we are listed as playing in the program. We all narrate, we all make background music, we play doors and anything else to help tell the story. And then I play another character in the second act."

A nanny? Like "Mrs. Doubtfire," the 1993 movie that starred, of course, Robin Williams... who also played an adult Peter Pan (opposite Dustin Hoffman) two years earlier, in Steven Spielberg's 1991 Peter Pan sequel, "Hook?" That's seriously (if inadvertently) meta.

But now EDGE needs to know: Was this bit of cross-gender casting typical of the role of Mrs. Bumbrake, or did director Spiro Veloudos decide it would be funnier to have a man playing the nanny?

"Well, again, from what I know of the history of the creation of 'Peter and Starcatcher,' I believe when they first worked on it ... maybe even when they did it out in La Jolla... they had a woman playing Mrs Bumbrake," McGarrahan reflects. "And then there was a young actress playing Molly, the girl. Then, in the process of moving it off-Broadway, they used a male actor to play Mrs Bumbrake. Consequently, you had a cast of men and a young actress.

"In the Lyric production they went that route, but then they took two of the parts that were played by men [in other productions], and those are played by women in our cast. We have three women in our cast, and we have nine men - as opposed to eleven and one."

How very Actors' Shakespeare Project. Now, there's a company that loves to cast across gender lines!

McGarrahan laughs. "You can do a lot of that sort of stuff when you're doing story theater. If I tell ya I'm a woman, then I'm a woman; if I tell ya a man, then I'm a man. It's very fluid that way, and it's even fluid between 'Are we listening? Are we watching the scene happen? Are we telling the scene that's happening, are we participating in the scene that's happening?' Those things change at the drop of a hat: Very fast, quick, funny. It keeps us on our toes, I'll tell you that!"

That's appropriate for a play about Peter Pan, because the character and the stories he's inspired are all about the experience of childhood: Magic, wonder, mystery.

McGarrahan takes that thought on board and runs with it. "What this play does is let you sort of see the transformation of a boy into what we know Peter Pan to be," he notes. "He's just not that hero or icon at the beginning; he's unnamed at the beginning of the play. The magic - and there is magic -- comes to him, and he accepts it. It's very interesting; he accepts it, he's interested in it, and it becomes part of him.

"They did a great job of [interpreting the character from his various depictions] - as you're watching it, you're saying, "Oh! That's sort of from this Peter Pan; and that's sort of from that Peter Pan." And by the time you're done with watching the play at the end of the night you have a lot more connections.

"I think there's only one character at the top of the play who is a character from the Peter Pan stories, and that's Smee. Everyone else becomes their character in the course of the story, or their name changes... but it's not immediately clear who everybody is."

In other words, this really is an origin story in the sense that we use that phrase now, and the play has fun with that idea.

"Absolutely!" McGarrahan agrees. "It's really like you're watching 'The Avengers' or something, and seeing how they became who they got to be."

EDGE takes note of the fact that there's also choreography in this play with music. Will McGarrahan be dancing and singing?

"Yes, we all dance; we all sing," the actor replies. After a beat, he adds: "All twelve of us."

That does sound like riotous fun. So, EDGE wonders, does McGarrahan particularly like musicals... or, as in this case, plays with a musical element?

"I like the fact that I can get cast in them," McGarrahan laughs, "meaning that I like the fact that I have a couple of skills that allow me to be in plays with music. Sometimes I've done plays where I played a piano on stage, and sometimes I'll get to sing; the fact that I'm able to do musicals also means I can cast a wider net. I do love doing musicals, but I try to keep swapping it out; I often don't have a lot of control over that. In addition to musicals, I like doing more traditional comedies or dramas."

"Peter and the Starcatcher" being the production that closes out the Lyric Stage Company's current season, EDGE wonders whether the much-in-demand actor is going to have a nice summer break, or whether he'll be working right on through to September?

" 'Peter and the Starcatcher' will take us into the end of June, and then I'll have another project start up as early as August," McGarrahan discloses. "It's not much of a summer, but it's enough.

The actor goes on to reveal how he came to be associated with the production. EDGE leans forward, anticipating a tale of intrigue: Cloaks, daggers, midnight forays...

"I auditioned for Spiro Veloudos, the director," McGarrahan says.

Oh.

"I did a series of auditions, and then I was cast. I've worked with Spiro a few times," McGarrahan goes on to add. "The first play we did together was in 2002; that was 'Dirty Blonde.' Since then, we've done 'Death of a Salesman' together, and 'Into the Woods,' and '33 Variations' -- which, again, was a play with music. I'd say I've done five or six plays with Spiro now."

EDGE posits the notion that McGarrahan must have developed the sort of working relationship in which he more or less knows what Veloudos is going to look for.

"We do have a good working relationship," McGarrahan says. "I have an understanding of his aesthetic, yes, and he has an understanding of mine, and we each know how the other one works. It's pretty similar: We both just want to get in there and do it.

"But in terms of getting cast? I say this to everybody: Don't try to figure out what people want. Show them -- show them an idea, and let them decide it they want that. And maybe they'll tell you to do something else, but start by telling them what they're looking for. Sometimes it matches up, and sometimes it doesn't.

"That goes for rehearsal, too: Sometimes you have an idea that's not necessarily what the director had in mind, but then once they see what you're doing, they might say, 'Oh, I get it.' "

Here's another way in which Peter Pan is a props to our conversation: Talk about not having to grow up! Actors have a chance to do the kind of work that, for all the craft and focus and effort it requires, is still fundamentally a kind of play.

"Kilian, I tell you, I don't know if this is true -- I haven't done the math yet -- there's twelve of us in the cast, a piano player, and a percussionist. I want to say we are on stage together 75% of the time -- all twelve of us are on stage," McGarrahan says, making it sound like a glorious romper room. "That might be an exaggeration, but not much. We've learned music together, we've learned choreography together, there's fight choreography, there are stage tricks, there's group narration - we got to know each other very quickly, and it continues to be fun. Part of that is the nature of the play and the storytelling. We're around each other all the time, we count on each other -- we've gotten to know each other pretty quickly."

It's gotta be the sort of thing that keeps a fellow young.

"Peter and the Starcatcher" continues through June 26 at the Lyric Stage. For tickets and more information, please go to http://www.lyricstage.com/productions/production.cfm?ID=100