Peter Pan is a 1954 musical based on J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and his 1911 novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is by Moose Charlap and the lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.
The original Broadway production, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, earned Tony Awards for both stars. It was followed by NBC telecasts of it in 1955, 1956, and 1960 with the same stars, plus several rebroadcasts of the 1960 telecast. In 2014, the musical was broadcast on NBC featuring several new numbers, and starring Allison Williams and Christopher Walken. The show has enjoyed several revivals onstage.
In 2024, a national tour launched, directed by Lonny Price, with a new book by Larissa Fasthorse.
Background and original 1954 production Several productions of Peter Pan were staged early in the 20th century, starting in London in 1904, starring Nina Boucicault as PeterDuke of York's Theatre. "Peter Pan.", Reviews, The Times, 28 December 1904 and on Broadway in 1905, starring Maude Adams. In a nod to the original play, and the pantomime tradition it derives from, the title role of Peter Pan in the musical has usually been played by a woman, including Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby, among others.Pilkington, Angel M. "Peter Pan: Myth and Fantasy", Midsummer Magazine, 2000, reprinted at the Utah Shakespearean Festival website, 2007
Producer Edwin Lester, founder and director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, acquired the American rights to adapt Peter Pan as a play with music for actress Mary Martin. The show was a box office success, but critics expected it to have more musical numbers that featured Mary Martin, so director Jerome Robbins hired lyricists Comden and Green and composer Jule Styne to add more songs, including "Never Never Land", "Distant Melody" and several other numbers, turning the show into a full-scale musical. The musical, instead of using Barrie's original ending, in which Wendy returns to the Neverland for spring cleaning, includes an additional scene that Barrie had written later and titled An Afterthought (later included by Barrie in his 1911 novelization Peter and Wendy). In this ending, Peter returns after many years to take Wendy back to the Never Never Land for spring cleaning. He finds that he has been away so long that Wendy is now an adult, married woman with a daughter. Despondent at first, he is delighted when Wendy's daughter Jane offers to be his new mother, and instead takes her with him.
The musical premiered at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on July 19, 1954. The initial four-week run was followed by an eight-week engagement in Los Angeles."Peter Pan: Original Broadway Production (1954)", Ovrtur.com, accessed March 10, 2016 The show opened on Broadway on October 20, 1954 at the Winter Garden Theatre for a planned limited run of 152 performances. The busy 1954 Broadway season also included The Boy Friend, Fanny, Silk Stockings and Damn Yankees. While still in tryouts, a deal was made for Peter Pan to be broadcast on the NBC anthology series Producers' Showcase on March 7, 1955, which ensured that it was a financial success despite the limited run. The revised score and Tony Award-winning performances by Martin and Cyril Ritchard, as Captain Hook, made the musical a critical success, and tickets sold out throughout the Broadway run. The show closed on February 26, 1955 to prepare for the television broadcast.Hanson, Bruce K. The Peter Pan Chronicles: The Nearly 100 Year History of the Boy that Wouldn't Grow Up. Birch Press: 1993, pp. 213–14
A Broadway cast album of the songs is still in print."Peter Pan – vinyl LP. An Original Cast Recording", RCA Victor (1954)
Television productions In 1954, Fred Coe, production manager for NBC in New York, began work on Producers' Showcase, a 90-minute anthology series that aired every fourth Monday for three seasons. One aim of the series was to broadcast expensive color spectaculars to promote the new color television system developed by NBC's parent company RCA.
On March 7, 1955, NBC presented Peter Pan live as part of Producers' Showcase (with nearly all of the show's original cast) as the first full-length Broadway production on color TV. The show attracted a then-record audience of 65-million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television program. Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard had already won Tony Awards for their stage performances, and Martin won an Emmy Award for the television production. It was so well received that the musical was restaged live for television (again on Producers' Showcase) on January 9, 1956. Both of these broadcasts were produced live and in color, but only black-and-white kinescope recordings survive.
Peter Pan was restaged on December 8, 1960, this time in a 100-minute version rather than 90 minutes (not counting the commercials), and with a slightly different cast because the original children had outgrown their roles. Producers' Showcase had long since gone off the air, so the 1960 production was intended as a "stand alone" special instead of an episode of an anthology series. Act II was split into two acts, for a total of five acts instead of three, to allow for more commercial breaks. This version was videotaped in color at NBC's Brooklyn studio. Martin was also starring in Broadway's The Sound of Music at the time. The production was directed for television by Vincent J. Donehue, who received a Director's Guild Award for it. Peter Foy re-created the signature flying sequences he had staged for the 1954 Broadway production and the two Producers' Showcase broadcasts.Martin, Mary "My Heart Belongs", pp. 203–210, William Morrow and Co., Inc. 1976 This 1960 version was rebroadcast in 1963, 1966 and 1973. The video tape of that production was restored and rebroadcast by NBC on March 24, 1989, then again on March 31, 1991, after which it went to the Disney Channel, where it was shown several times more. Beginning in 1989, the program was slightly cut to make room for more commercial time. Eliminated completely was a dance that Liza (the Darling family maid) and the animals of Neverland perform to an orchestral version of Never Never Land. Also eliminated was Mary Martin's curtain speech at the end thanking NBC for making the program possible, which, in the 1960, 1963, and 1966 telecasts led directly into the closing credits. Gone also was the intertitle bearing the credit Peter Pan: Act III, but not the other intertitle credits, so that the show seemed to be performed in three acts, just as in the stage version.
This 1960 production of Peter Pan was released on VHS and LaserDisc home video in 1990 and on DVD on October 19, 1999. None of the three Mary Martin television versions of Peter Pan was telecast from a theatre with a live audience. All three were performed in the NBC studios. In 2000, A&E presented a TV production of the Broadway show, starring Cathy Rigby, recorded in front of a live audience.Zad, Martie. "Cathy Rigby Flies High in Peter Pan", The Washington Post, October 8, 2000; and Jones, Kenneth. "Rigby's Peter Pan Flies Into Homes on A&E Oct. 8; On Video and DVD Oct.10", Playbill, July 18, 2000
In 2014, NBC broadcast Peter Pan Live!, a new production of the musical starring Allison Williams as Peter, Christopher Walken as Captain Hook, Kelli O'Hara as Mrs. Darling, Christian Borle as Mr. Darling/Smee and Minnie Driver as the adult Wendy.Gans, Andrew. "Girls Star Lands Coveted Title Role in NBC's Peter Pan Live!", Playbill, July 30, 2014, accessed May 17, 2018 Critical reviews were mixed, with many reviewers expressing relief that the broadcast was not a disaster.Hetrick, Adam. "The Verdict: Read Reviews of Peter Pan Live! on NBC", Playbill, December 4, 2014
Casts of major productions Character 1954 Broadway 1955 broadcast 1956 broadcast 1960 broadcast 1979 Broadway 1990 Broadway 1991 Broadway 1998 Broadway 2024 National Tour Peter PanMary MartinSandy DuncanCathy RigbyNolan AlmeidaCaptain Hook/Mr. DarlingCyril RitchardGeorge RoseStephen HananJ. K. SimmonsPaul SchoefflerCody GarciaWendy DarlingKathleen NolanMaureen BaileyMarsha KramerCindy RobinsonElisa SagardiaHawa KamaraJaneMarisa MorellAileen QuinnChristina Helene BraaTiger LilySondra LeeMaria PogeeHolly IrwinMichelle SchumacherDana SolimandoRaye ZaragozaJohn DarlingRobert HarringtonMichael AllenJoey TrentAlexander WinterBritt WestDavid BurdickBarry CavanaghWilliam FoonMicah Turner LeeMichael DarlingJoseph StaffordTom HalloranKent FletcherJonathan WardChad HutchisonJoey CeeDrake EnglishReed EpleyJayden Guarneri Mr. SmeeJoe E. MarksArnold SoboloffDon PotterMichael NostrandKurt PerryMrs. DarlingMargalo GillmoreBeth FowlerLauren ThompsonBarbara McCullohShefali DeshpandeAdult WendySally BrophyAnn ConnollyPeggy MaurerNeva Rae PowersHawa KamaraTootlesIan TuckerDavid KomoroffCarl TramonJulian BrightmanAileen QuinnCharles AntenenSlightlyDavid BeanEdmund GaynesChris FarrChristopher AyresScott BridgesJonah BarrickloCurlyStanley StennerBill SnowdenMichael EstesAlon WilliamsBrandon GilleNibsParis TheodoreCarson WoodsDennis Courtney colspan=3 Leo GallegosThe TwinsAlan SutherlandDarryl DuranJackie ScholleDarryl DuranAlan SutherlandHarold DayBrad HerrmanLuke HalpinRusty JacobsJoey AbbottJanet Kay HigginsCourtney WynJanet Kay HigginsDoreen ChilaWilliam FoonMicah Turner LeeReed EpleyJayden Guarneri
Later productions The show was revived in 1979 on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, produced by Nancy and Ronnie Horowitz, starring Sandy Duncan and George Rose, and ran for 554 performances. Duncan was nominated for the Best Actress Tony, and the show was nominated for Best Revival of a Musical.
A third Broadway production was mounted in 1990, originally at the Lunt-Fontanne, running for 45 performances. A return engagement opened 10 months later, this time at the Minskoff Theatre, running for an additional 48 performances. Both engagements starred former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby as Peter; the first co-starred Stephen Hanan and the second J. K. Simmons. The production was nominated for Best Revival of a Musical at the 1991 Tonys, and Rigby was nominated for Best Actress. Rigby returned to Broadway as Peter Pan in 1998 at the Marquis Theatre, with Paul Schoeffler co-starring. This production ran for 48 performances. A return engagement with the same stars opened in 1999 at the George Gershwin Theatre and ran for 166 performances. This engagement was nominated for the 1999 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. The performance was recorded at the La Mirada Theater for broadcast in October 2000 on the A&E Network. The video release cuts the program to about 96 minutes, directed by Gary Halvorson. It reconceived the potentially offensive "Ugg-a-Wugg" song about Native Americans as a percussive dance number. The flying effects were changed to include some flights that were not practical to do in the theatrical version, such as the somersault flips during "I'm Flying", and electronically erasing the wires.
The Cathy Rigby production was brought to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in November 2019 as the first Broadway show to be produced in the kingdom. The show was well received and included the lead of Peter Pan being portrayed by a woman with fans lining up after for autographs and photos.