‘Peter Pan’ star brings powerful representation to Tiger Lily role

“Peter Pan” is flying again in a revamped take on the Tony Award-winning show beginning March 26 at the James M. Nederlander Theatre.

While the story’s lead character remains steadfast about never wanting to grow up, the team behind the stage production has found a way to beautifully evolve J.M. Barrie’s 100-year-old classic.

And it’s a Neverland that we’ve never seen.

Teaming up with the show’s Emmy Award-winning director Lonny Price (“Sunset Boulevard,” “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill”) is acclaimed playwright Larissa FastHorse (“The Thanksgiving Play,” “What Would Crazy Horse Do?”). In addition to wanting to keep alive the production’s themes of childhood enchantment and wonder, they also put a large focus on representation — in particular, improving upon the tropes seen in previous adaptations where Neverland character Tiger Lily and her tribe were reduced to stereotypical Native American caricatures.

Matthew Murphy

“It was very hurtful,” FastHorse, who is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, said in an interview with Playbill earlier this year, when discussing the play’s original script. “There’s an assumption that we exist as something to be hunted and fought with and battled and killed. To see our reality put out there as something fun and silly was difficult.”

For the new “Peter Pan” production, she reinterpreted the characters as Indigenous descendants who “all go to Neverland to preserve their culture. Neverland is something that’s helping them and saving them, keeping their culture alive until maybe one day they can find a way to bring it back.”

As part of the incredibly diverse cast — which also includes Nolan Almeida as Peter Pan, Hawa Kamara as Wendy and Cody Garcia as Captain Hook — is Raye Zaragoza in a breakout role of Tiger Lily.

“As a kid, I remember Peter Pan as this magical boy … and then there’s this [side] story about this Native American girl … [who’s] just tied up for a lot of her scenes. It was a harmful stereotype,” Zaragoza, who is of Japanese, Mexican and Native American (Akimel O’otham) heritage, recalled in a recent phone interview. “And that’s why I was really passionate about re-creating Tiger Lily … It felt like an amazing opportunity and responsibility.”

In recent years, L.A.-based Zaragoza has made waves for her work as a singer-songwriter, contributing songs to the Netflix series “Spirit Rangers” and crafting her own beautiful folk protest songs like “American Dream” and “In The River.” The latter is a track released in 2017 in support of Standing Rock in light of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.

Yet acting was an early interest for Zaragoza, too, especially after seeing her father, actor Gregory Zaragoza, take on iconic roles, including Chief Sitting Bull in an early ‘90s reprisal of “Annie Get Your Gun” that starred Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat.

After the younger Zaragoza found her footing in musical theater in high school, she met Larissa FastHorse during a workshop at the Native Voices company at the Autry in Los Angeles, and the two have remained close over the years, leading to the opportunity for Zaragoza to audition to play Tiger Lily.

“What I loved about our early conversations was that Larissa and Sarafina Bush, who did the costuming [for ‘Peter Pan’], wanted to pull from me and wanted to base the costuming off of my ancestry … the whole indigenous tribe. Everyone’s costumes are based off their family’s ancient heritage,” Zaragoza said.

She added the whole production has been an “amazing learning process” that also translates to her work as a music artist.

“As someone who doesn’t necessarily identify as an actor, I found I can be myself [as Tiger Lily]. I can find the anchor and empowerment within me to bring that to this brave warrior girl. Tiger Lily is just trying to preserve the culture of her tribe, and she’s trying to prove to all the boys on the island that she’s strong enough and that she’s capable, and that’s literally my life as a musician in an industry that’s predominately male and predominately non-Native,” said Zaragoza, whose latest album, “Hold That Spirit,” was released in 2023 on her label, Rebel River Records.

“I feel like Tiger Lily’s struggle to prove her worth and to prove her capabilities is just parallel to my own life.”

Even now, Zaragoza is finding inspiration on tour with the production, which she says she will take into her next venture.

“My next goal is I want to write a musical, so I’m here doing some research,” she said with a chuckle, before conceding, “It’s an incredibly exciting time for Native voices, and there is a long way to go, but all we can do is keep having these conversations and keep creating.”