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It's 7.30 p.m. on December 27th, 1904, backstage at the Duke of York's Theater in London, England. Stagehands, costumers, and actors run about, getting the last details in order before opening night of a brand new play,

a fairy tale for children called Peter Pan, or the boy who wouldn't grow up. Preparations are still going on right to the last minute. Sets are being painted and complicated flying harnesses

are being perfected. The play's author, J. M. Berry, stands off to the side, nervously smoking his pipe.

After writing the play and shepherding it through production for months,

all there's left for him to do now is wait and worry.

Barry has built a reputation as a serious playwright,

but now he's risking it all on this bizarre children's fantasy.

Barry remembers all too well when

the respected and successful theater producer Herbert Beerbom Tree read the script and said

Barry must be out of his mind. Those words echo in Barry's ears as the theater doors open

and the audience begins to take their seats. Gazing out from behind the curtain, Barry notices that this opening

night crowd is mostly adults. His new play has captured the attention of skeptical theater

lovers, stuffy upper-class businessmen and judgmental newspaper critics. This is not the audience

Barry had in mind when he wrote his whimsical fantasy, and he realizes with fear that if this grown-up audience doesn't enjoy the play,

there's one section in particular that could stop the performance dead in its tracks.

There's a scene in which the fairy Tinkerbell dies.

Peter Pan turns to the audience and says that fairies can be brought back to life

if children believe and clap their hands.

...