LOS ANGELES — Peter Pan won’t grow up.

He makes that very clear in the J.M. Barrie story from the early 1900s, the 1953 animated Disney film and the Broadway musical that debuted a year later.

Despite Pan's eternal youth, there are aspects of the story that have not aged well. In fact, playwright Larissa FastHorse said they were harmful.

“I grew up avoiding 'Peter Pan' like the plague,” she said. “I mean, I'd only heard the bad. I'd seen the terrible clips… of past songs that were really offensive and really upsetting.”

That's why she was initially hesitant when she was first approached to rewrite the book to the classic musical. Despite her refusal, her agent suggested she read it first, and she understood why the story has swept so many up in its spell.

“It's funny. It's complicated. It's for an intergenerational, multi-generational audience, and I was really excited about it,” FastHorse said. “I took the job almost immediately after I read it. And it's been really a beautifully difficult and joyful journey since then.”

The first thing she set out to do was reframe the narrative around Tiger Lily and her tribe. In the past, she said, the characters were presented as part of the “magical creatures” of Neverland, complete with negative and harmful stereotypes. FastHorse decided to use the “never grow up” magic of Neverland to their advantage, making each member of the tribe the last of their particular Indigenous culture.

“And when they were the last one, they go to Neverland to save their culture and preserve it, and hope to come back to this world someday,” she said. “So that way, Neverland is a positive for these Indigenous peoples and something that's helping them, as opposed to something that doesn't really make sense.”

Each character was carefully researched, based on the actor’s own heritage, with details woven into the fabric of their costumes.

“Raye Zaragoza has some Indigenous Thai background as well,” FastHorse said, standing beside Tiger Lily’s costume. “So you'll see kind of the shapes of it… come from some very ancient culture, as it used to be in Thailand.”

“My character is named Boa after the Bo people who are off the coast of India, on the Andaman Islands,” said Shefali Deshpande, who also plays Mrs. Darling.

As a first-generation American, Deshpande is honored to represent her Indian heritage on stage and in the program.

“Our names are so important, right?” she said. "So to see Deshpande in a Playbill is just so huge for me, and it really sort of invites people of all walks of life to think, 'Oh, I could also be a part of something that has maybe previously not been a space for me.'"

There are other changes as well. This "Pan" is set in modern times in America, and FastHorse said the creative team was determined to make sure the cast was as diverse as the America they would be touring in.

“I'm so excited about representation in this production,” she said. “It was really important to [director] Lonny Price and I, that any child who looked out their window could believe that Peter Pan could fly by their window and come visit them.”

The cast includes four Native American performers, which FastHorse calls thrilling. There are actors of all races, backgrounds and genders, including Cody Garcia, a nonbinary performer who plays Captain Hook.

“I think it's important so that children can understand the scope of life and understand themselves better,” they said of the representation on stage. “I feel like if I was a child, seeing someone like a Black Wendy, for example, and an actually native Tiger Lily… and land acknowledgments before the show and non-binary Captain Hook, I feel like it would have been very helpful for me to understand the diversity of what the world is.”

Kurt Perry plays Hook's sidekick Mr. Smee. As a plus-sized actor, he has spent his career advocating for body diversity on stage.

“Generally, your Smees are slight and short, and I am neither of those things,” he said. “So I think that this is a good opportunity for people to see a plus-sized person in a role that is not explicitly written as plus-size and to go, 'Well, where else can we do this?'"

“Plus-sized performers are constantly having to forge our own ways that are not…rooted in offensive stereotypes,” he continued. “But I think that that's sort of what 'Peter Pan' is about, particularly in this production. We are sort of all forging our way for a safer and more joyful experience as performers and as artists… and for all of the people who come to the theater.”

This is Perry's first time at the Pantages, and he and Garcia marveled at the opulent art deco lobby. But for Nolan Almeida, who plays the title role, this is a return to familiar turf. The Yorba Linda native saw many musicals there growing up, and when he arrived with the tour, he found a seat in the back row and took it all in.

“It was a crazy experience to, you know, sort of see, 'That's where I used to sit, and now I'm up here,'" he said.

The 17-year-old is also no stranger to "Peter Pan." He did a production when he was in fourth grade at a local community theater but admits it wasn’t quite as high tech.

“We didn't actually fly,” he said with a laugh. “We had these dads dressed in all black, and they… hoisted us up on their shoulders.”

This time, Almeida is being lifted by the magic not of fairy dust, but of Paul Rubin, who has been helping actors defy gravity for 36 years.

“There's a track system that has ropes and cables and all kinds of gizmos in it,” Rubin said. “And there's two operators. One operator lifts up and down, and one travels back and forth. And when they work together, they create this picture. And Nolan is the picture.”

Almeida, a high school junior, used to be afraid of heights, but knows he’s in good hands — both with Rubin and with FastHorse. He applauds the changes made in this production and says there’s a lesson for modern kids in this classic tale.

“Especially now, there's so much pressure to grow up quickly,” he said. "And I think we forget that being a kid is one of the most beautiful things… It's a gift that we get."