No fairy dust sprinkles 'Peter Pan' prequel

Many attractive brand names are attached to "Peter and the Starcatcher," not the least of which is the tiny New York Theatre Workshop, where "Rent" was first launched.

The show, a prequel to Peter Pan's story, is based on the best-selling Disney novel for kids cowritten by humorist Dave Barry. The adaptation has been written by Rick Elice ("Jersey Boys"), codirected by Alex Timbers ("Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson") and Roger Rees (the multitalented actor/ director about to replace Nathan Lane in "The Addams Family"), with cast culled from Broadway quality.

Smash prequels of beloved stories -- "Wicked," anyone? -- have been created from less.

But this one turns out to be a puzzlement, and not in a provocative way. For starters, despite a composer credit and the background of the creators, this is not a musical. There are virtually no songs, just some background music and an amusing finale, a derivative jaunt mostly indebted to Gilbert and Sullivan.

This would be no problem, if the story were told in less frantic and exhausting ways. The style is admirably based on imagination instead of fancy spectacles. No flying for this superhero, thank you very much, really.

The hand of Rees -- cherished forever as the original Nicholas Nickleby in the Royal Shakespeare Company's masterwork -- is evident in the story-theater narration. Actors divide up the novelistic lines when not playing individual roles. Doorways are created by actors holding some bent rope. Victorian toy ships are enough to set the stage for the sea voyages and battles. It is all very clever, just not very interesting.

Celia Keenan-Bolger makes a plucky Molly, the privileged English girl who ends up adopting Peter (the endearing Adam Chanler-Berat and the other Dickensian orphans. Christian Borle is splendidly goofy as Black Stache, the villain we watch evolve into Captain Hook.

But this really is an attenuated kids' show sprinkled with self-conscious anachronisms and winking hipness for the grown-ups. The plot twists tie into a lovely foreshadowing of Peter Pan's future adventures with Wendy, Nana and Neverlands to come. Too bad they seem more enchanting than this one.