A play about a play falling apart has landed at San Francisco Playhouse, where failing flight rigs and crumbling sets are all part of the act. Peter Pan Goes Wrong runs through November 28, 2026, following the fictional Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as its members attempt to stage J.M. Barrie's 1904 classic Peter Pan — and spectacularly fail, as described by KTVU.
A Local Director Returns to Familiar Chaos
The production marks the opening show of San Francisco Playhouse's 2026–2027 mainstage season, its 24th, and is directed by company co-founder and producing director Susi Damilano, according to Local News Matters. Damilano previously directed the company's 2024 staging of Mischief Theatre's The Play That Goes Wrong, giving her a head start on the physical demands of the farce genre. She co-founded San Francisco Playhouse with Artistic Director Bill English in 2003, and Mischief Theatre's Peter Pan Goes Wrong features the Cornley drama society, per Mischief Comedy.
Peter Pan itself supplies the show's central gag: the need for flight, built on what the production describes as faith, trust, and pixie dust, per KTVU's reporting. Watching actors face onstage chaos as the Cornley society's rigs and scenery buckle is the engine of the comedy, the station notes.
From London's Pleasance Theatre to Broadway's Ethel Barrymore
The play's roots stretch back over a decade. Mischief Theatre was established by Henry Lewis while he was a student at the London Academy of Dramatic Art, according to a study published via Taylor & Francis. The company's work features improvisation, collaboration and physical comedy. Peter Pan Goes Wrong premiered at London's Pleasance Theatre in 2013 before transferring to the West End's Apollo Theatre for the 2015–2016 season, where it earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination — following Mischief Theatre's 2015 Olivier win for The Play That Goes Wrong.
A one-hour television special adaptation, produced by the original Mischief company and guest-starring David Suchet as narrator, was filmed live in front of a studio audience and drew 6.4 million viewers when it aired on BBC One on New Year's Eve in 2016, Mischief Comedy reports. The show later made its Broadway transfer in March 2023 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre for a 16-week run. Guest narrators during the Broadway run included Neil Patrick Harris and Ellie Kemper; Bradley Whitford and Daniel Dae Kim were guest narrators for the later Los Angeles engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre. The Broadway production featured original Mischief members, followed by the Los Angeles engagement.
Inside the 199-Seat Union Square Venue
San Francisco Playhouse stages its productions at 450 Post Street inside the Kensington Park Hotel, in a 199-seat theatre built in 1924 and originally designed by architect Anthony Heinsberger as an Elks Lodge, according to Wikipedia. The company moved into the space in 2012 after previously operating on Sutter Street. That intimate footprint raises the stakes for a farce built on flying rigs and collapsing sets, since the technical chaos has to look convincing while the actors stay safe in such close quarters.
For its San Francisco run, the theater has scheduled an accessible performance on October 11, 2026, offering live audio description and a haptic touch tour that lets blind and visually impaired patrons interact with set elements and costumes before the show begins, per San Francisco Playhouse's own program notes.
What's Next on the Mainstage
Peter Pan Goes Wrong opens a five-play subscription season that continues with Rent, Lizard Boy, Life of Pi, and Sweeney Todd. The lineup mixes a major Broadway musical revival with a regional premiere and contemporary works, rounding out the company's 24th season in Union Square.
Mischief Theatre's brand of calculated disaster has already found an audience well beyond San Francisco. Hoodline previously reported on Charlotte's Broadway season, which included a touring engagement of Peter Pan Goes Wrong as part of Blumenthal Arts' 2026–2027 lineup — a sign the show's appeal for watching things go hilariously sideways extends across the country.
