The Bruce Jacklin and Co. production of “Peter Pan” opened Thursday night at the Memorial Theater in Mount Vernon for the first of a four-performance run. J. M. Barrie’s classic tale of the boy who won’t grow up is indestructible stuff, surviving adaptations into musicals, animations and films. The popular musical based on Barrie’s original play emphasizes the playful aspects of the story, and director Bruce Jacklin played up the spectacular visual elements of the show.

Tatiana Leis, who will be a sophomore at Mount Vernon High School, found the right swagger to make her portrayal of the title character take flight. I mean that metaphorically, of course. The literal flying was made possible by the backstage flying crew, which did a wonderful job giving fluid movements to the characters’ flights. Leis was able to maintain a boyish vocal tone in the songs, something not always the case with female performers of this role. Her poised control while singing and flying at the same time was nothing short of outstanding, as I could hear no sign of strain in her voice even as she was spinning through the air.

Playing Wendy Darling, Kinsey Crow brought ample charm to the girl who eagerly joins Peter in his adventures. Crow, also a MVHS incoming sophomore, has a lovely, dulcet singing voice which made her songs musical highlights of the show. Quentin Platt was charmingly playful as Wendy’s brother John, while her younger brother Michael was played adorably by Megan Porter, teddy bear in tow. Young Porter showed no fear, whether singing, crowing or flying. Her funniest moment came toward the end of the show, where she was choreographed to best the 6-foot-4 Smee during the big fight scene, kicking him in the posterior as he crawled off stage.

Smee turned out to be the endlessly brilliant Matt Starr, scoring big laughs in his brief scenes with dopey yet endearing antics. What makes Starr’s character devices so funny is that you simply can never catch the sense of him just mugging for laughs. He always completely inhabits the characters he plays, so that you never for a moment feel that he gets the joke, which makes it a hundred times funnier. Of course, as an actor he does, but the conscious mind of Starr is buried too deep to be seen on the surface of any character he plays, even one as insubstantial as Smee. I wish he’d go out to Hollywood and teach that technique to some of the boneheads making movies these days. It just goes to show that sometimes genius is in the far-off artistic capitals of the world, and sometimes it’s in your own home town.

There is a long tradition inherited from melodrama of booing the arch-villain Captain Hook, and Steve Stone appeared to take great satisfaction in drawing those good-natured taunts from the crowd. He balanced flair as the pirate with dignity in his portrayal of the father of the Darling children. His fellow pirates were a motley crew of hams, never missing a chance to play up the farcical elements of their characters, while turning some nice dance steps, too.

The Lost Boys were a high-energy team, happily replete with two real twins (William and Christopher Hartman), a memorably chipper Tootles (Walker Griggs), and well-portrayed individual characters by Russell Donnelly (as Slightly), Leanne Nixon (as Nibs), Jacob Pido (as Swiggs) and Jacob Schermerhorn (as Curly).

The featured Indian dancers, led by the elegantly poised Maria Crippen as Tiger Lily, were impressively consistent and committed to Kristin Gloege’s inventive choreography. As an aside, be prepared to set your modern sensibilities aside on the Indian sections of this show. This musical was written decades ago, and the Indian sections are very dated now, featuring made up words and every cruel stereotype in the book. So, just remember that this production is reviving an old classic. But as far as the portrayal of Native Americans in this production goes, I do have to say there were some real palefaces in this tribe!

All the cast contributed a sense of fun and adventure to the show, as did the attractive and colorful sets and costumes. Diane Dingler’s vocal direction drew forth some skillful ensemble singing, as well as effective solos. The orchestra played energetically under Dane Heuchemer, though with some intrusive intonational problems.

The show’s biggest problem, more so than a few opening-night technical blips, seems to be inadequate restroom facilities at the Memorial Theater. Just like last year’s production of “Beauty and the Beast,” this show was saddled with an intermission that lasted just shy of half an hour. Can’t something be done? Port-a-pots would not be an elegant solution, though I venture to say a fair number of patrons would prefer them to a 27-minute intermission causing little ones to get cranky. Perhaps the county commissioners could take it upon themselves to pursue a funding grant to have some new facilities added to the theater in the future.

The shows continues Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and closes Sunday with a matinee performance at 2 p.m.