Spectacular effect lets Peter Pan soar to new heights at City Hall Plaza

Youngsters today may be clueless about Neverland, but they are knowledgeable about video games. So many who have never heard of James M. Barrie are agreeing to accompany their elders to the current high-tech production of the Scottish playwright’s classic “Peter Pan.”

The much-hyped show promises a never-before-possible plunge into a TRON-like, CGI (Computer Graphics Imagery) environment. So what if they don’t get all the jokes and allusions?

Inside the 100-foot, tiered tent at City Hall Plaza, the audience finds itself surrounded by more than 15,000 square feet of Hi-Resolution video, three times the size of an IMAX screen. Couple that with an apparent fulfillment of everyone’s flying fantasy, a young adult cast using clothes hanger-like contraptions for aerial acrobatics. In short, this “awfully big adventure” delivers “Avatar”-like, first of its kind thrills.

True, most folks come primarily to experience the world’s first fully 360-degree projected movie for live theater. Ultimately, though, the robust performances, Ben Harrison’s staging and the adaptation of the 1904 play itself will determine whether they want to cut out at intermission.

The high point in the show comes midway though the first half, the “Second to the right, and straight on till morning” scene. Peter hand-and-hand with the Darlings and Tinkerbell soar over virtual London, angling to duck though the Wellington Arch or to swoop over Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.

The novelty of the projections wears thin by the end of the first act, so the humor and pathos of the play has to carry the audience through the second. Barrie’s thoughts on the importance of mothers, the casual cruelty of children, and “the boy who never grew up” syndrome come through much more piquantly than in the more familiar Disney versions.

Two of the principal actors have Boston roots – the bare-chested Chuck Bradley (a refreshing change from female Pans like Cathy Rigby and Mary Martin) and Emily Yetter, a punk-rockish Tinkerbell, who makes rude sounds, such as would never be heard in recent Disney fairyland spinoffs.

Puppeteers bring to life the Darlings’ canine nanny and the ticking crocodile, determined to polish off the rest of Captain Hook (Josh Swales, who as tradition dictates also plays the underappreciated Mr. Darling).

The English accents and idioms like “cowardy custard” get in the way for some, but others feel the crisp diction has a rather Harry Potterish ring.

“Peter Pan” was staged for decades in England as a Christmas treat; G.B. Shaw observed that the play is “ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children, but really a play for grown-ups,” which may explain the preponderance of adults in the audience.

The production has already been extended to run through the end of the year. For ticket information, visit peterpantheshow.com/boston. The best seats can be found in Section C.