Last Updated on May 6, 2026
The play that is so, so right for the festive season!
You can rejoice in London this year, when it comes to choosing a seasonal show. Flying into the Lyric Theatre, guaranteeing to bring you comfort, joy and two hours of laughter is Mischief Theatre’s Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
Arrive in good time to take your seat and be immediately inducted into the world of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, the accident-prone troupe presenting the performance. Silvio Amati’s wonderfully exciting score from “Peter Pan on Ice” sets the mood as the players frantically move about the auditorium, making their final preparations. Chatting with the audience and looking for lost props they cleverly break down the invisible wall between actors and audience. We’re already part of the production.
By the time the curtain rises, we’re familiar with jobs-worth stage manager Trevor (Chris Leask) and first-timer Lucy’s stage fright (Ellie Morris). We’re up to speed with the power play and creative tensions between Director Chris Bean (Harry Kershaw, who also plays a wonderful Captain Hook and Mr Darling) and his Assistant/Co-Director, Robert Grove (multi-tasking Mathew Howell covering Nana the dog, Peter’s hilarious shadow and an incomprehensible pirate Starkey). 
While our hapless players battle through continuous mishaps, prop failures, scenery malfunctions and deal with cast idiosyncrasies, their amusing secrets and personal relationships are embarrassingly revealed. An integral player in the performance is Simon Scullion’s revolving set. Filled with booby traps, the unexpected, ingenious mishaps and visual gags it offers, constantly surprises the audience and often entertainingly drives the narrative.
As the Cornley production spirals down with an ever-heightening sense of organised chaos, this accomplished cast is terrific to watch. Individually talented and skilful, together they have great chemistry and exude infectious fun. Their timing is impeccable.
Charlie Russell’s Sandra hits the perfect stereotype of the English am-dram leading lady with her Wendy and Matthew Cavendish’s Max stirs the audience’s support for his unrequited love for Sandra (all whilst playing Michael, a mermaid AND a crocodile). Clark Devlin is hilarious as John and Mr Smee and Nancy Zamit deserves a prize for comic timing and quicksilver costume changing between Annie, Mrs Darling, maid Lisa and Tinker Bell. As the narrator, Jean-Luke Worrell, recently seen at the Barbican in “A Strange Loop”, brings super-charged style.
Mischief Theatre was founded by a group of acting graduates from LAMDA back in 2008 and the company continues to be controlled and led by its original members. “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” is co-written by Mischief’s Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields who together with director Adam Meggido and associate director Fred Gray are experts in the fast-paced, improvised farce which has brought them a string of hits globally, both on stage and on TV. Their first creation, the award-winning “The Play That Goes Wrong”, is the longest-running comedy in the West End and is currently playing at London’s Duchess Theatre.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong” is playing until 13 January 2024 at the Lyric Theatre and is then on tour. For tickets and information see: https://www.mischiefcomedy.com/peterpangoeswrong-uk-tour/uk-tour/tour
Lyric Theatre,
Shaftesbury Avenue,
London, W1D 7ES
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