THE LOST BOY Charing Cross Theatre, London WC2

In the next four years there will be many plays, films, operas and ballets remembering the horrors of World War 1. The lost boy is J M Barrie’s Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up because he wanted to remain a boy for ever. The conceit of Phil Willmott’s new musical, which he also directs, is that Peter Pan does grow up. And what better way in 1914 to prove you are a man than to enlist? George Llewellwyn-Davies (one of five brothers who inspired Barrie to write his play) is in the trenches and dreams he is Peter Pan and instead of taking the lost boys to Never Land and eternal childhood and immortality, he takes them to Flanders and death in No Man’s Land. To die proves to be a much bigger adventure than anybody could ever have imagined. 9 million lost their lives in the Great War. Steven Butler adopts the familiar legs-wide-apart, hands-on-hips stance and comes across as too vulgar. (“Grown men don’t stand like that unless they are in an operetta,” admonishes Wendy, who inexplicably fancies him.) . The actor with the most charisma is Joseph Taylor and he should be playing Peter.