The other night I drove up to Portland with a new friend to see the Broadway performance of Finding Neverland at the Keller Auditorium in Portland.
In all honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect with this performance, as the story was new to me. I had heard of the 2004 movie – but never saw it and didn’t know the details of the story.
Finding Neverland is the story about the author J. M. Barrie, who created the beloved classic Peter Pan. It follows J. M. Barrie’s struggles with his own imagination along with learning to cope with adults who disapprove of what was deemed as child-like behavior.
The story is actually quite interesting.
In a nutshell it’s about a writer who is having a difficult time creating a play that is new and exciting. He begins looking in different places for inspiration and finds it in a park of all places, where a widow and 3 out of her 4 boys were playing make-believe. He is intrigued and then begins to develop a platonic relationship with the mother along with her sons, and really learns how to become in touch with his childhood imaginations and mind.
While the story is actually fairly complex, Finding Neverland brushes over a lot of the perhaps complicated relationships, however it does pull at your heart during a couple sentimental moments ( you may need to bring a tissue or two).
I always tend to look at the positive things and moments while at events, and what I liked about them. There were definitely several things that I took away with me after attending Finding Neverland:
3 Things I learned while watching Finding Neverland
It’s okay to act silly. So often we as adults forget that it’s okay to act silly; that it’s okay to be goofy and have fun. Just because society runs a certain way doesn’t mean that we necessarily have to follow it.
Listen to what your heart and mind tells you – and follow it. That old saying is probably right,‘ don’t get so caught up in making a living that you forget to make a life‘…or something to that nature. We run around trying to create what we think is this picture perfect life, only to realize that we aren’t in love with it.
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. Just because no one has done something like it doesn’t mean it can’t be done! You are in control of your dreams and you have to let yourself achieve them.
Finding Neverland didn’t have quite as many catchy musical lyrics as I would have expected, however I think it was a Broadway performance that I would most certainly go see again because we all need a reminder to make memories daily and celebrate life.
If you’d like more tour and casting information:
www.FindingNeverlandTheMusical.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FindingNeverlandTheMusical
Twitter: @NeverlandBway
Instagram: @FNLmusical
~Melissa
