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Don’t come to “Finding Neverland” expecting to see Peter Pan and Wendy flying through the air. Director Diane Paulus and the other creators of the new musical are after a more earthbound kind of magic.

Barrie’s close relationship with family friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her four sons, who inspired his work on Peter Pan, lies at the core of the play.

For Gary Barlow, walking around the streets of Cambridge is a refreshing experience. Here, he’s Gary Barlow, co-songwriter for the American Repertory Theater’s new musical, “Finding Neverland.” But back home in the U.K., he’s Gary Barlow, founding member of the massively popular ‘90s boy band Take That.

It’s always a tricky and risky proposition to adapt a beloved film into something else, but that’s what’s happening at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, where “Finding Neverland” is being transformed into a musical.

Paulus’s mantra is to “expand the boundaries of theater,” and this production is part of that goal. “It is set in 1904, but it is keyed in to Barrie’s imagination, and the imagination is timeless,” she says.

Contemporary audiences will have the chance to experience some of that wonder this summer when the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) recaptures the spirit of the boy who would never grow up in its premiere of “Finding Neverland.” The new musical, about the real-life genesis of Barrie’s groundbreaking work, runs from July 23 through Sept. 28.

“It’s exhausting,” says Jordan. “It’s demanding in all sorts of ways. The first act is physically demanding. The second act is more emotionally demanding. And then you figure that I’m onstage for almost the entire show – I leave for only about seven minutes total.”

Best known for his Tony-nominated turn in Broadway’s Newsies and his role on the NBC series Smash, Jordan will star as Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie…. The story follows Barrie’s developing relationship with the family that inspired his most famous fictional character.