Peter Pan review

[ghostjmf]

Hey, someone's got to do it. Well, maybe not, since hasn't appeared yet?

At any rate, I was really looking forward to this, which highlights the patheticness of my life, I think.


What I really should do is rent/buy the Mary Martin version from my childhood.


And compare notes; maybe I missed something when I was an actual child.


Were the Lost Boys really played by men in short trousers? I remember, like, real boys. In last night's, it generally looked like the cast of Newsboys. Who are generally 27-year-olds playing 16-year-olds. Doesn't work when you have 27-year-olds playing 12-year-olds. Only one on-line review I saw pointed that out, with clever crossy-outie line through "Newsboys" that I can't replicate here. Wendy was too old as well, or at least too old-looking; I haven't checked the actress's actual age. Decent enough singer, which is probably why they hired her, but too old-looking.


They probably hired the Newsboys for their dancing ability, too. But I'd have preferred real boys.


Peter Pan, on the other hand, even though the actress is not getting uniformly great reviews (she does get a lot of good ones) completely won me over. Lotta gumption & attitude. More like a rebellious teenaged boy with a softie center than a fey sprite. Which is fine for this day & age.


But, as has already been said by lots before me by now, the production lacked oomph in the highest. Lotsa production, but not lotsa oomph. They were half-way through the 1st scene & I was already worried; "at this pace, are they gonna get through it in their appointed 3 hours?". Are live NBC plays allowed to run over like the Oscars? Not to worry, they ended on time.


Neverland looked like a hippie-dippie nightmare, not an island; a few giant bunches of posies, as in psychedelic posies off of a poster for Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix, standing in for trees go a long way. Too, too far of a way.


Christopher Walken looked enbalmed, & barely spoke louder than if he had been. Yeah, its the name character actor's choice here to downplay Hook. But its a bad choice. And I resent him calling "Smee" "Shmee". The play was not written in Yiddish.


There was also far to much hint hint wink wink erotica here; the "let me give you a kiss" & then, realizing he doesn't know what a kiss is, Wendy gives Peter a thimble was I believe in the original play & works well; a boatride later with her basically coming on to him just made me say "ick", like I think I would have at age 8 when I probably saw the Mary Martin production, & from which I don't remember this scene. I'll check if it was there. And the suppressed glances of the pirates at Hook, each other etc aren't suppressed enough. The pirates were probably the Best Thing after Peter, but its a borderline you've got to watch here. Just because a situation is campy in modern terms doesn't mean it needs to be over-the-top even to the actual 8-year-olds actually watching.


The Tiger Lily "watch out for flying racist accusations" boundary was observed by making her a Native Islander instead of a Native American, with her tribe done up in Maori-style tattoos. And her in the world's longest green-to-resemble-grass skirt, not a tiny skin tunic like I think I remember. And they redid a song involving her so as to not make people cringe. Good idea.


If this were a real play, instead of a one-shot NBC production, they could have tightened it. And hired some real boys to play boys, & trained them to dance if they desperately needed them to dance. And kicked Walken in the pants to get him a bit more animated. But its over now.

[jarnon]

Peter Pan, on the other hand, even though the actress is not getting uniformly great reviews (she does get a lot of good ones) completely won me over. Lotta gumption & attitude. More like a rebellious teenaged boy with a softie center than a fey sprite. Which is fine for this day & age.

Brian Williams was a guest on the Tonight Show yesterday. Instead of slow-jamming the news, he bragged about his daughter Allison in Peter Pan.

[Kazoo65]

In related news, according to USA Today.com, Fox is jumping on the live theater bandwagon next January 31st with a production of "Grease" starring Julianne Hough as Sandy and Vanessa Hudgeons as Rizzo. No word on who's going to play Danny Zuko yet-at least they've got a year to figure that out.

Since "Grease" is one of my favorite shows, I hope they don't goof this up. They're planning a 3 hour broadcast-I've seen the play and I don't think it's 3 hours long.

[silverscreenselect]

Since "Grease" is one of my favorite shows, I hope they don't goof this up. They're planning a 3 hour broadcast-I've seen the play and I don't think it's 3 hours long.

With commercials, it will be.

[ne1410s]

Useless info: Stockard Channing was 34 when she played Rizzo in the film.

[Ritterskoop]

NBC was talking about doing The Music Man next fall but now they are switching to The Wiz.

Good call. I'll watch it.

I would have watched The Music Man also, as it is one of my favorites, but it's on TV all the time. I've never seen The Wiz. Anika Noni Rose for the good witch, if they're asking for my vote.

[SpacemanSpiff]

NBC was talking about doing The Music Man next fall but now they are switching to The Wiz.

Good call. I'll watch it.

I would have watched The Music Man also, as it is one of my favorites, but it's on TV all the time. I've never seen The Wiz. Anika Noni Rose for the good witch, if they're asking for my vote.

Hopefully they'll return to the Broadway version (where Dorothy was a teen) rather than the movie concept (Dorothy was middle-aged, in order to cast Diana Ross). It's one of those things that, if done right, has a good potential. And I agree, Music Man has been overdone.

[T_Bone0806]

Since "Grease" is one of my favorite shows, I hope they don't goof this up. They're planning a 3 hour broadcast-I've seen the play and I don't think it's 3 hours long.

I was not a huge fan of the movie version, to me it was just ok. I saw Grease during its original Broadway run...Jeff Conaway, who played Kenicke in the film, was playing Danny when we saw it, having taken over from original Danny, Barry Bostwick. The original Broadway show was MUCH more salty and crude...and waaaay funnier....than the toned-down version in the film. A couple of songs were cut, and Kenicke sang Greased Lightning, not Danny. From what I understand, the recent revivals are closer to the movie version than the original stage version...after all, everyone now expects to hear You're The One That I Want, for instance...and that song was written for the movie...I'm betting the new tv version will also follow the movie blueprint. Unfortunate to me, because the original version had me laughing until my sides hurt. Had I not seen it on Broadway, I probably would've appreciated it more.