Peter Pan - de musical, Antwerpen

Last night, we were fortunate enough to find ourselves in possession of free tickets to the Premiere of Peter Pan, the musical.

It seems that each theatre production I attend here in Belgie, outdoes the production that went before and last night's show was no exception - it took a quantum leap towards stunning.

We were lucky, 5th row back from the stage - seated quietly amongst the VIPs, we could see everything. The live orchestra was superb and even managed to amuse when the double bass player's view of the conductor was obscured by dry ice flowing down over him in the orchestral pit. Both the musician and the conductor were laughing quietly for quite some time.

The cast was stunning. Peter Pan was played by actor and childrens television presenter Aron Wade, a man who caused Gert's 11 year old daughter to squeal with excitement when she saw his name on the programme.

Peter, Tinkerbell, Wendy, John and Micheal all 'really' flew and Captain Hook's boats actually sailed ... on a thick sea of very believable dry ice.

I wanted to explore the stage. Even I was stunned when a pirate ship rose up from from below ... a massive ship, full of singing pirates. The stage sets were stunningly good and the scenery changes were smoothly carried out.

And then there was the singing ...!! Karel Deruwe played Captain Hook (Kapitein Haak actually) and his voice was superb although it took me awhile to tear my eyes away from his little red-heeled woman's shoes ... it was odd to see the dastardly pirate daintly tripping about in them.

I had previously photographed Smee at a political function ... and Luc Caals was the perfect Smee. A short round man with an excellent singing voice - so good at slapstick-type comedy that we all fell in love with him and no protests were made when Smee moved into the Darling family home with the Lost Boys at the end.

Something else that impressed me was the physical strength that was surely required to fly round the stage. Priske Dehandschtter played Tinkelbel and climbed, ran, jumped and flew with courage.

The children actors were professional beyond their years. They performed singing and dance routines with the adults, matching them easily. They acted, sang and danced flawlessly.

Ik word nooit groot was the song of de wilde jongens of Nooit of Nimmerland. (I'll never grow up was the song of the wild boys of Never Neverland.)

Nooit of Nimmerland ... riding home on the tram I practised saying it, amused by the sound of old knowledge made new when said in Nederlands.

You can find ticket information here and information about the actors here .