It wasn't long after Mary Martin took her first Broadway flight as Peter Pan that Ann, the central character of Sarah Ruhl's sometimes-whimsicalsometimes-philosophical new drama took her own crack at the role as a 10-year-old.
- 9/24/2017
- by Michael Dale
- BroadwayWorld.com
In plays like “Stage Kiss” and “The Clean House,” Sarah Ruhl has established herself as a playwright capable of injecting the fantastical into the mundane, of bringing a kind of magic realism to kitchen-sink dramas. Her promising but underwritten new play, “For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday,” which opened Wednesday at Off Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons, starts out as a memory play. A 70-year-old woman named Ann (Kathleen Chalfant) recounts her experience playing Peter Pan on stage as a child in 1940s Davenport, Iowa — and meeting famed actress Mary Martin, who made the role famous. (Ann was inspired by.
- 9/13/2017
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.
- 6/9/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Bette Midler is the lady in red!
The legendary actress is starring in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! as she steps into the titular role of Dolly Gallagher Levi. The musical starts preview performances on March 15, with opening night set for April 20 at the Shubert Theatre.
The musical follows Dolly as a widow in her middle years who has decided to begin her life again.
Midler last hit Broadway for the hit one-woman play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers in 2013. She made her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof in 1966 and went on...
The legendary actress is starring in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! as she steps into the titular role of Dolly Gallagher Levi. The musical starts preview performances on March 15, with opening night set for April 20 at the Shubert Theatre.
The musical follows Dolly as a widow in her middle years who has decided to begin her life again.
Midler last hit Broadway for the hit one-woman play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers in 2013. She made her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof in 1966 and went on...
- 3/14/2017
- by Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
Happy Birthday, Robert Preston best remembered for his performance as 'Professor' Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man 1962. He had already won a Tony Award for his performance in the original Broadway production, in 1957. In 1965 he was the male part of a duo-lead musical, I Do I Do with Mary Martin, for which he won his second Tony Award. He played the title role in the musical Ben Franklin in Paris and originated the role of Henry II in the original production of The Lion in Winter. In 1974 he starred alongside Bernadette Peters in Jerry Herman's Broadway musical Mack amp Mabel as Mack Sennett, the famous silent film director. That same year 1974 the film version of Mame, another famed Jerry Herman musical, was released with Preston starring, alongside Lucille Ball, in the role of Beauregard Burnside.
- 6/8/2016
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
Ethel Merman and Mary Martin never tried this. Tony winners Kelli O’Hara and Victoria Clark put aside their usual show tunes to sing Henry Purcell’s 17th Century opera, “Dido & Aeneas,” presented Thursday and Friday by Master Voices at the New York City Center. Anyone who saw O’Hara and Clark together in Adam Guettel’s great musical “The Light in the Piazza” in 2005 won’t be surprised that they can sing opera. How well O’Hara sings baroque arias, however, is astounding. All the singers here are mic’d for the cavernous City Center, but it’s doubtful...
- 4/29/2016
- by Robert Hofler
- The Wrap
Former first lady Nancy Reagan, the stylish and strong-willed widow of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, has died of congestive heart failure, her spokesperson confirms. She was 94. "Mrs. Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband, Ronald Wilson Reagan, who died on June 5, 2004," her spokesperson said in a statement obtained by People. "Prior to the funeral service, there will be an opportunity for members of the public to pay their respects at the Library." Reagan, who long prided herself on her trim figure - she claimed...
- 3/6/2016
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
You have to begin by asking yourself, do we really want an origin story for Peter Pan? J.M. Barrie certainly didn’t seem to think we needed it when he first wrote the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up in December 1904. The book we’re more familiar with, Peter and Wendy, didn’t arrive until 1911.
However, we have been conditioned to expect to understand everything there is about a character and too often we’re given origin stories that dilute the action. So, one has to wonder why Warner Bros and director Joe Wright felt we needed Pan.
The overwrought, over-produced production got bumped from summer to fall only to flop big time and is out now on Combo Pack from Warner Home Entertainment.
The idea of the boy who never grew up, who had wild escapades in Neverland should be sufficient lure for audiences.
However, we have been conditioned to expect to understand everything there is about a character and too often we’re given origin stories that dilute the action. So, one has to wonder why Warner Bros and director Joe Wright felt we needed Pan.
The overwrought, over-produced production got bumped from summer to fall only to flop big time and is out now on Combo Pack from Warner Home Entertainment.
The idea of the boy who never grew up, who had wild escapades in Neverland should be sufficient lure for audiences.
- 12/21/2015
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
Today in 1991, the second Broadway revival of Peter Pan opened at the MInskoff Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark 'Moose' Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original 1954 Broadway production, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, earned Tony Awards for both stars.
- 12/12/2015
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
Today in 1991, the second Broadway revival of Peter Pan opened at the MInskoff Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark 'Moose' Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original 1954 Broadway production, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, earned Tony Awards for both stars.
- 11/26/2015
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of September 8th, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Masters Of Cinema: Shane aspect ratio Jacques Rivette Collection News Monkees Box Set Bray Studios Kickstarter We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story on Blu-ray Arrow Video Sale New Olive October titles Kino – The Mask 3D (1961) New Releases
September 1st
Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters Collection BackCountry Dark Star: H.R. Gigers World Good Kill Mad Max: Fury Road Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 1 Peter Pan – Starring Mary Martin Robot Carnival Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season 1
September 8th
10 to Midnight The Age Of Adaline Angst At Close Range Over the Garden Wall Defiance Dressed to Kill The Editor Emperor of the North...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Masters Of Cinema: Shane aspect ratio Jacques Rivette Collection News Monkees Box Set Bray Studios Kickstarter We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story on Blu-ray Arrow Video Sale New Olive October titles Kino – The Mask 3D (1961) New Releases
September 1st
Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters Collection BackCountry Dark Star: H.R. Gigers World Good Kill Mad Max: Fury Road Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 1 Peter Pan – Starring Mary Martin Robot Carnival Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season 1
September 8th
10 to Midnight The Age Of Adaline Angst At Close Range Over the Garden Wall Defiance Dressed to Kill The Editor Emperor of the North...
- 9/9/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Theodore Bikel. Theodore Bikel dead at 91: Oscar-nominated actor and folk singer best known for stage musicals 'The Sound of Music,' 'Fiddler on the Roof' Folk singer, social and union activist, and stage, film, and television actor Theodore Bikel, best remembered for starring in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and, throughout the U.S., in Fiddler on the Roof, died Monday morning (July 20, '15) of "natural causes" at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Austrian-born Bikel – as Theodore Meir Bikel on May 2, 1924, in Vienna, to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European parents – was 91. Fled Hitler Thanks to his well-connected Zionist father, six months after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 ("they were greeted with jubilation by the local populace," he would recall in 2012), the 14-year-old Bikel and his family fled to Palestine, at the time a British protectorate. While there, the teenager began acting on stage,...
- 7/23/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
During our recent webcam chat (watch below), Allison Williams reveals she was introduced to the world of acting as a little girl when she watched a tape of the TV version of the musical "Peter Pan" with Broadway vet Mary Martin in the title role. When she saw that Captain Hook and Mr. Darling were both played by Cyril Ritchard, "it occured to me that that was a job you could have, that you could be that one human being that plays different people, puts on different costumes. So It was definitely part of what fueled me to become an actor. Because that just looked like the most fun in the world; as it is, I can now say.” -Break- On playing the boy who never grows up on "Peter Pan: Live," the actress admits, “It was the hardest I ever worked on anything, harder than getting into college… I...
- 6/9/2015
- Gold Derby
London, England. Since J.M. Barrie birthed the character in 1902, Peter Pan has been imagined in myriad forms. He's been featured on-stage in plays and a musical. He's been the focus of live-action movies and animation, of wild reimagination and strict Barrie-inspired adherence. Everybody has a first image of Peter Pan that springs to mind, whether it's Disney, Mary Martin or even Robin Williams. It's a property accompanied by expectations, which makes it familiar ground for director Joe Wright. "I have a bit of a habit of that because, you know, 'Pride and Prejudice' was kind of quite close to a lot of people’s hearts. And 'Atonement' was as well and 'Anna Karenina' was as well," Wright says. "So I try not to really think about it and really just make a film that is representative of my own feelings about the book and my relationship with the book.
- 4/14/2015
- by Daniel Fienberg
- Hitfix
It’s late afternoon, halfway through a 12-hour-long rehearsal day for Finding Neverland, the musical version of the 2004 Johnny Depp movie about the playwright J.M. Barrie — creator, 111 years ago, of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, which made his career and also inspired the 1953 Disney animated movie, the 1960 stage-to-screen version starring Mary Martin, the peanut-butter brand, the bus company, the solidly mediocre NBC live event starring Allison Williams last year, and Michael Jackson’s ranch (not to mention the so-called syndrome, which describes commitment-phobic arrested development). At the moment, Matthew Morrison, who plays Barrie, is stage right in the 1,505-seat Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, practicing his dance spins. The previews of Finding Neverland are timed almost exactly to the wrap of Morrison’s six-year run as the earnestly encouraging Ohio high-school singing-club coach Will Schuester on Fox’s once-game-changing sing-along dramedy Glee. Morrison has traded his Mr. Schue sweater-vest for an Edwardian...
- 3/20/2015
- by Carl Swanson
- Vulture
According to Deadline, Mary Martin's 1960 Tony Award, which she earned for her performance in The Sound of Music, was purchased at auction today for 35,000. The trophy which was one of four that she earned throughout her career onstage came Boston's Rr Auction as a part of the estate of Martin's son, Larry Hagman, who passed away in 2012 from complications of acute myeloid leukemia.
- 3/19/2015
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Update 2:25 Pm: The total price including the buyer’s premium, was $43,750. Exclusive: Dough-Re-Mi: Mary Martin’s 1960 Tony Award for The Sound Of Music sold at auction today for $35,000. It was part of a trove of entertainment-related memorabilia sold by Boston, Massachusetts-based Rr Auction. The medallion is engraved "The American Theatre Wing Presents to Mary Martin This Award for her Performance in 'The Sound of Music,' 1959–60." The front of the medal features the…...
- 3/19/2015
- Deadline
Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...
- 3/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
How do you solve a problem like Maria? For the producers of The Sound of Music, which hit theaters fifty years ago this week, the solution turned out to be Julie Andrews. Other actresses were considered for the part of the free-spirited nanny whose effervescence overcomes not only the grumpiness of Captain von Trapp but also the tyranny of the Nazis. Among those rumored to have been in the running for the role were Grace Kelly, Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn and Anne Bancroft. But in the end, even the producers who wanted a bigger, more marquee-friendly name agreed that Maria should be played by Andrews.
- 3/6/2015
- by Drew Mackie, @drewgmackie
- PEOPLE.com
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has released a lineup, along with new photos and dates, of their upcoming movies for 2015.
From dinosaurs to fairy tales, super heroes to galaxies far, far away, one of the most anticipated films next year is from director Steven Spielberg.
©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Tom Hanks (left) stars in Spielberg’s (right) Untitled Cold War spy thriller, which is the true story of James Donovan, an attorney who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible mission to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.
“This is one of the more astonishing stories about the Cold War I’d ever heard. James Donovan is a hero to me and Tom made him so completely accessible. I’ve always wanted to make a spy...
From dinosaurs to fairy tales, super heroes to galaxies far, far away, one of the most anticipated films next year is from director Steven Spielberg.
©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Tom Hanks (left) stars in Spielberg’s (right) Untitled Cold War spy thriller, which is the true story of James Donovan, an attorney who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible mission to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.
“This is one of the more astonishing stories about the Cold War I’d ever heard. James Donovan is a hero to me and Tom made him so completely accessible. I’ve always wanted to make a spy...
- 12/30/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Today in 1991, the second Broadway revival of Peter Pan opened at the MInskoff Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark 'Moose' Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original 1954 Broadway production, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, earned Tony Awards for both stars.
- 12/12/2014
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
“You are a traitor and I am the fucking CIA.” – Carrie Mathison
Have you been watching Homeland this season?
Homeland suffered not a sophomore slump but a jumpy junior year, which im-not-so-ho, admirably redeemed itself with the emotionally tortured final story arc of CIA agent Carrie Mathison (the magnificent Claire Danes) and her lover, the “almost” terrorist Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (the brilliant Damien Lewis), which left Carrie pregnant, Brody dead, and viewers wondering, “Where do they go from here?”
Well, where they went has been one brilliant roller-coaster ride.
The season four premiere was a two-hour feast of Carrie Mathison six months after the death of Brody, with the geography shifting from Kabul to Istanbul to Washington, D.C., as Carrie coped with a failed drone strike and the death of the CIA station chief in Istanbul at the hands of an angry mob.
Oh, and the reality of her (detached) motherhood,...
Have you been watching Homeland this season?
Homeland suffered not a sophomore slump but a jumpy junior year, which im-not-so-ho, admirably redeemed itself with the emotionally tortured final story arc of CIA agent Carrie Mathison (the magnificent Claire Danes) and her lover, the “almost” terrorist Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (the brilliant Damien Lewis), which left Carrie pregnant, Brody dead, and viewers wondering, “Where do they go from here?”
Well, where they went has been one brilliant roller-coaster ride.
The season four premiere was a two-hour feast of Carrie Mathison six months after the death of Brody, with the geography shifting from Kabul to Istanbul to Washington, D.C., as Carrie coped with a failed drone strike and the death of the CIA station chief in Istanbul at the hands of an angry mob.
Oh, and the reality of her (detached) motherhood,...
- 12/8/2014
- by Mindy Newell
- Comicmix.com
Among the scads of viewers live-tweeting NBC's Peter Pan Live! on Thursday was Orange Is the New Black's Lea DeLaria, who at one point tweeted: "I don't know who else is watching Peter Pan but that was a lesbian love song." She was, of course, referring to one of Allison Williams's drag moments as the titular character. "I do not understand how I have been a dyke comic for over 30 years — 33 years professionally — on television, everywhere and have never discussed the very thinly veiled homoerotic undertones of Peter Pan. And it wasn’t until I saw it that I went, How did I miss this?" she told Vulture at Cyndi Lauper's Home For The Holidays benefit concert for homeless Lgbt youth. What's her most memorable Pan moment? "I loved the Mary Martin one. I was glued to it as a child. It was like the greatest thing I’d ever seen.
- 12/7/2014
- by Sean Fitz-Gerald
- Vulture
As a young child, I loved a strange range of movies, from Pretty Woman to Dirty Dancing, Fern Gully to The Little Mermaid, The Thornbirds to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. My wide, mixed up taste was bred from relatively lax familial observations of my watching habits (most of my consumption happened in front of our living room television, a room placed squarely in the middle of our long house, with occasional trips to the single screen theater in our small Vermont town, so I wasn’t really hiding anything). My parents didn’t seem to care too much about what I watched – although I do have a strong memory of going to see Summer of Sam with my parents as a teen, which included my aghast mother asking me at least ten times if I wanted to leave – and I didn’t really abuse the freedom. I just liked things. It...
- 12/5/2014
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
We were promised hate-watching. We were told that NBC was "counting on" us to tune into Peter Pan Live! just to complain that Allison Williams wasn't talented enough, or British enough, or Mary Martin enough. We prepped our Twitter jokes about how the dog (a real dog!) was the most natural actor in the whole cast. We waited for the sets to fall apart, for the wires suspending the actors above the stage to break, for Captain Hook's hook to fly off stage and break some NBC intern's glasses. We readied our thinkpieces about the uncomfortable implications of Peter flirting...
- 12/5/2014
- by Melissa Maerz
- EW - Inside TV
Growing up, my brother, sister, and I wore out our VHS recording of one of Mary Martin's TV productions of Peter Pan. Mixed in between viewings of Apollo 13 and The Empire Strikes Back, we learned every word to every song, and while I don't remember dancing along with the Lost Boys, there is no doubt that we could have, if asked. I've never seen the musical on stage, so, for me, Peter Pan simply belongs on TV and producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan spared no fiary dust in creating a magical Peter Pan that reinforced why this holiday tradition should never grow up and fly away. Despite a handful of hiccups that befall many live productions, simply put, Peter Pan Live is a triumph for children young and old.
- 12/5/2014
- by Matt Tamanini
- BroadwayWorld.com
Anne Marie: Good evening, Lost Boys & Girls. Anne Marie here with the ever-youthful Margaret to live-blog NBC's Peter Pan Live! Or it would be live, but Los Angeles does everything on a delay, so instead it's a late-blog three hours after the original event began.
Margaret: Thank goodness they don't do this with the Oscars.
Anne Marie: A word on my credentials: Like millions of children, I was basically raised on the Mary Martin/Cyril Ritchard broadcast. Until I was six, I thought I was going to grow up to be Peter Pan. I've also been in it, designed for it, and seen the Cathy Rigby version (twice). Oh, and for actual credentials, I have a minor in theater and have stage managed in La for six years. I also liveblogged The Sound of Music Live! last year. This isn't my first trip to Neverland, is what I'm saying.
Margaret:...
Margaret: Thank goodness they don't do this with the Oscars.
Anne Marie: A word on my credentials: Like millions of children, I was basically raised on the Mary Martin/Cyril Ritchard broadcast. Until I was six, I thought I was going to grow up to be Peter Pan. I've also been in it, designed for it, and seen the Cathy Rigby version (twice). Oh, and for actual credentials, I have a minor in theater and have stage managed in La for six years. I also liveblogged The Sound of Music Live! last year. This isn't my first trip to Neverland, is what I'm saying.
Margaret:...
- 12/5/2014
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
The cast of Peter Pan Live! has been toiling away at rehearsals, getting every little part perfect, but according to one of the show's producers, viewers would prefer an unpolished performance.
Pics: TV Villains Who Wouldn't Stay Dead
"Let's face it, people are going to tune in to hope that something goes wrong, because that's the excitement and the energy," said co-executive producer Craig Zadan.
Craig is executive producing the show with longtime collaborator Neil Meron. Together, their productions (which include the 86th and 85th Academy Awards, Chicago, Hairspray and Footloose) have earned 11 Emmys, six Oscars and two Tonys.
Their production of The Sound of Music Live, starring Carrie Underwood, reeled in 18.5 million viewers for NBC last year, which has expectations high for their Peter Pan production, starring Allison Williams.
"[Allison] is fearless when it comes to doing this live presentation," said Neil. "There are literally no safety nets, and that's the joy, the thrill...
Pics: TV Villains Who Wouldn't Stay Dead
"Let's face it, people are going to tune in to hope that something goes wrong, because that's the excitement and the energy," said co-executive producer Craig Zadan.
Craig is executive producing the show with longtime collaborator Neil Meron. Together, their productions (which include the 86th and 85th Academy Awards, Chicago, Hairspray and Footloose) have earned 11 Emmys, six Oscars and two Tonys.
Their production of The Sound of Music Live, starring Carrie Underwood, reeled in 18.5 million viewers for NBC last year, which has expectations high for their Peter Pan production, starring Allison Williams.
"[Allison] is fearless when it comes to doing this live presentation," said Neil. "There are literally no safety nets, and that's the joy, the thrill...
- 12/4/2014
- Entertainment Tonight
When Allison Williams first posted a picture of herself as Peter Pan on her Instagram account, she quickly got a lesson on how naive people were about the character's storied history. "There were so many comments like, 'Weird how a woman is playing Peter Pan,' " recalled the Girls actor, who is starring in NBC's live production of Peter Pan Live! Thursday night. "It's just so funny because I've been reading and learning a lot about the creation of Peter Pan and it's typically always been a woman. It's just so funny to me that that became a question." It's...
- 12/4/2014
- by Lynette rice, @lynetterice
- PEOPLE.com
When Allison Williams first posted a picture of herself as Peter Pan on her Instagram account, she quickly got a lesson on how naive people were about the character's storied history. "There were so many comments like, 'Weird how a woman is playing Peter Pan,' " recalled the Girls actor, who is starring in NBC's live production of Peter Pan Live! Thursday night. "It's just so funny because I've been reading and learning a lot about the creation of Peter Pan and it's typically always been a woman. It's just so funny to me that that became a question." It's...
- 12/4/2014
- by Lynette rice, @lynetterice
- PEOPLE.com
View Photo Gallery
On December 4, NBC will try to recreate the ratings success of last year’s The Sound of Music with the family friendly Peter Pan Live!, starring Girls’ Allison Williams and Oscar winner Christopher Walken. The beloved musical with a book by Sir James M. Barrie, music by Mark “Moose” Charlap and Jule Styne, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green has a long history with the Peacock Network, airing its first telecast of the Broadway show starring Mary Martin in 1955. After its initial broadcast, NBC restaged the musical live again in 1956, and then in 1960, with subsequent rebroadcasts of the last production over the course of the next three decades.
Originally conceived as a vehicle for Martin, Peter Pan the musical has continued to live on stages around the world. In preparation of the forthcoming live event, VH1 spoke with many of the key players...
On December 4, NBC will try to recreate the ratings success of last year’s The Sound of Music with the family friendly Peter Pan Live!, starring Girls’ Allison Williams and Oscar winner Christopher Walken. The beloved musical with a book by Sir James M. Barrie, music by Mark “Moose” Charlap and Jule Styne, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green has a long history with the Peacock Network, airing its first telecast of the Broadway show starring Mary Martin in 1955. After its initial broadcast, NBC restaged the musical live again in 1956, and then in 1960, with subsequent rebroadcasts of the last production over the course of the next three decades.
Originally conceived as a vehicle for Martin, Peter Pan the musical has continued to live on stages around the world. In preparation of the forthcoming live event, VH1 spoke with many of the key players...
- 12/2/2014
- by Damian Bellino
- VH1.com
View Photo Gallery
On December 4, NBC will try to recreate the ratings success of last year’s The Sound of Music with the family friendly Peter Pan Live!, starring Girls’ Allison Williams and Oscar winner Christopher Walken. The beloved musical with a book by Sir James M. Barrie, music by Mark “Moose” Charlap and Jule Styne, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green has a long history with the Peacock Network, airing its first telecast of the Broadway show starring Mary Martin in 1955. After its initial broadcast, NBC restaged the musical live again in 1956, and then in 1960, with subsequent rebroadcasts of the last production over the course of the next three decades.
Originally conceived as a vehicle for Martin, Peter Pan the musical has continued to live on stages around the world. In preparation of the forthcoming live event, VH1 spoke with many of the key players...
On December 4, NBC will try to recreate the ratings success of last year’s The Sound of Music with the family friendly Peter Pan Live!, starring Girls’ Allison Williams and Oscar winner Christopher Walken. The beloved musical with a book by Sir James M. Barrie, music by Mark “Moose” Charlap and Jule Styne, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green has a long history with the Peacock Network, airing its first telecast of the Broadway show starring Mary Martin in 1955. After its initial broadcast, NBC restaged the musical live again in 1956, and then in 1960, with subsequent rebroadcasts of the last production over the course of the next three decades.
Originally conceived as a vehicle for Martin, Peter Pan the musical has continued to live on stages around the world. In preparation of the forthcoming live event, VH1 spoke with many of the key players...
- 12/2/2014
- by Damian Bellino
- TheFabLife - Movies
It’s almost time. On December 4, NBC’s “Peter Pan Live!” takes flight. If it does half as well as last year’s “The Sound of Music,” it’s pretty much a lock to become a yearly holiday tradition. While Allison Williams scored the titular role as Peter — following in the footsteps of Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, and others — plenty of Hollywood actresses auditioned for the part. But none brought the gritty realness like Jane Krakowski. Only she could see through the facade to what life is really like for a boy who won’t grow up, perhaps due to his addiction to “pixie dust.” Leaked 'Peter Pan Live!' Audition Tape with Jane Krakowski from Jane Krakowski...
- 12/2/2014
- by Donna Dickens
- Hitfix
Today in 1991, the second Broadway revival of Peter Pan opened at the MInskoff Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark 'Moose' Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original 1954 Broadway production, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, earned Tony Awards for both stars.
- 11/26/2014
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
In addition to classics like "I Won't Grow Up" and "I'm Flying," NBC's upcoming live production of Peter Pan will feature some songs unfamiliar even to those who wore out their VHS copies of the Mary Martin movie. Peter Pan Live! enlisted Amanda Green—the daughter of one of Peter Pan's original lyricists, Adolph Green, and a Broadway veteran in her own right—to help expand the show with new lyrics for pre-existing melodies. "It fleshed out the show. It deepened the characters, it kind of drove plot more—which good songs do in musicals. Amanda was just wonderful in...
- 11/18/2014
- by Esther Zuckerman
- EW - Inside TV
Et has an exclusive look at the rehearsals for Peter Pan Live!.
Et has an exclusive look at the rehearsals for Peter Pan Live!.
"It's the absolute dream job," said Girls actress Allison Williams, 26, who stars as the titular role in the live NBC telecast, airing December 4.
News: First Look at Allison Williams as 'Peter Pan'
NBC broadcasted Peter Pan live with legendary Broadway star Mary Martin from the mid '50s to the early '60s, giving Allison some big shoes to fill, but she's evidently spent most of her life preparing for the part.
When the casting announcement was made, Allison posted a childhood photo of herself dressed as Peter Pan, writing, "I've been rehearsing for a Really long time."
Likewise, Allison's father, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported the casting news during a broadcast, saying, "Family members confirm that she's been rehearsing for this role since the age of three and they look...
Et has an exclusive look at the rehearsals for Peter Pan Live!.
"It's the absolute dream job," said Girls actress Allison Williams, 26, who stars as the titular role in the live NBC telecast, airing December 4.
News: First Look at Allison Williams as 'Peter Pan'
NBC broadcasted Peter Pan live with legendary Broadway star Mary Martin from the mid '50s to the early '60s, giving Allison some big shoes to fill, but she's evidently spent most of her life preparing for the part.
When the casting announcement was made, Allison posted a childhood photo of herself dressed as Peter Pan, writing, "I've been rehearsing for a Really long time."
Likewise, Allison's father, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported the casting news during a broadcast, saying, "Family members confirm that she's been rehearsing for this role since the age of three and they look...
- 11/6/2014
- Entertainment Tonight
Here’s your first look at director Niki Caro’s film McFarland, USA. The trailer stars Kevin Costner and Maria Bello.
Inspired by the 1987 true story, McFarland, USA follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school.
Coach White and the McFarland students have a lot to learn about each other but when White starts to realize the boys’ exceptional running ability, things begin to change. Soon something beyond their physical gifts becomes apparent—the power of family relationships, their unwavering commitment to one another and their incredible work ethic.
With grit and determination, the unlikely band of runners eventually overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.
Inspired by the 1987 true story, McFarland, USA follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school.
Coach White and the McFarland students have a lot to learn about each other but when White starts to realize the boys’ exceptional running ability, things begin to change. Soon something beyond their physical gifts becomes apparent—the power of family relationships, their unwavering commitment to one another and their incredible work ethic.
With grit and determination, the unlikely band of runners eventually overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.
- 11/3/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Building the hype ahead of the December 4th broadcast, “Peter Pan Live!” just released an exciting promotional clip.
The new video features behind-the-scenes footage from the NBC production as well as an inside look at the much anticipated project.
Meanwhile, Allison Williams met up with past Peter Pans Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan and made sure to post a photo from the magical moment.
Williams captioned the Instagram shot, “Peter Pans Past and Present! Can't believe I got to spend my morning with Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan on the Today Show. I asked them as many questions as we had time for. These women (and Mary Martin) inspire me to no end. What an unbelievable honor. #PeterPanLive #OurShadow.”...
The new video features behind-the-scenes footage from the NBC production as well as an inside look at the much anticipated project.
Meanwhile, Allison Williams met up with past Peter Pans Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan and made sure to post a photo from the magical moment.
Williams captioned the Instagram shot, “Peter Pans Past and Present! Can't believe I got to spend my morning with Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan on the Today Show. I asked them as many questions as we had time for. These women (and Mary Martin) inspire me to no end. What an unbelievable honor. #PeterPanLive #OurShadow.”...
- 10/30/2014
- GossipCenter
Peter Pans, past and present! Allison Williams received invaluable advice from her Peter Pan predecessors, Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby McCoy, on the Today show, Thursday, Oct. 30. "Can't believe I got to spend my morning with Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan on the Today Show," Williams, 26, wrote on Instagram alongside a fun snap with the stars. "I asked them as many questions as we had time for. These women (and Mary Martin) inspire me to no end. What an unbelievable honor. #PeterPanLive #OurShadow." Peter Pans Past [...]...
- 10/30/2014
- Us Weekly
Last year, NBC had an unexpected hit in "The Sound of Music Live!", which got 18.82 million viewers live. Those are numbers very few shows get anymore. The show was a mess, admittedly. Carrie Underwood was wildly miscast as Maria, but America got a primetime look at Tony winners Laura Benanti, Audra McDonald, and Christian Borle do what they do best, and the three of them made the telecast worth watching. NBC, in an effort to repeat the success of last year, will be airing "Peter Pan Live!" on December 4th, starring Allison Williams (who I think is the best part of Girls) as the boy who won't grow up and Christopher Walken (who I think is the best part of everything) as his nemesis Captain Hook. The live event was given its first poster today. This is not the first time a live trip to Neverland will be on NBC,...
- 10/17/2014
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
Last year, NBC staged a live production of The Sound Of Music starring Carrie Underwood and delivered huge ratings for the network. Their next live musical will be an adaptation of Peter Pan, a production popularized by the 1960 version starring Mary Martin. The NBC take will star Girls actress Allison Williams in the title role, but it is the inclusion of the immortal Christopher Walken as Captain Hook that should pique your interest. The first official image of Walken in costume has come...
- 9/24/2014
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
Some might say that Allison Williams’s character on Girls has a case of arrested development, but Williams quite literally won’t grow up in the first image from NBC’s Peter Pan Live!. Williams is starring as the titular character in the live production of the 1954 musical airing Dec. 4, and here she appears perched on a ship’s mast all ready to go thanks to some spandex, some mesh, and a wig. No, Williams didn’t get a pixie cut for the part. She wrote on Instagram: “I was all ready to cut my hair, then was told by...
- 9/3/2014
- by Esther Zuckerman
- EW.com - PopWatch
Fifty years ago this month, Mary Poppins chim-chim-cher-ee'd its way into cinemas. The sugary sweet spectacular was rapturously received by cinemagoers of the era and audiences are still in love with the magical movie more than half a century on from its original release.
You’ve probably watched the film a hundred times. You might even know all of the words to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." But in celebration of Mary Poppins’ fiftieth anniversary here are ten fun things that you might not know about the movie.
It took Walt Disney more than 20 years to acquire the rights After his daughters fell in love with the books Walt Disney promised he’d adapt P.L Travers’ hit story for the silver screen. However, convincing the notoriously sceptical author proved harder than he could have ever imagined and after first pursuing the project in 1938 it took more than twenty years for Disney to finally secure the film rights.
You’ve probably watched the film a hundred times. You might even know all of the words to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." But in celebration of Mary Poppins’ fiftieth anniversary here are ten fun things that you might not know about the movie.
It took Walt Disney more than 20 years to acquire the rights After his daughters fell in love with the books Walt Disney promised he’d adapt P.L Travers’ hit story for the silver screen. However, convincing the notoriously sceptical author proved harder than he could have ever imagined and after first pursuing the project in 1938 it took more than twenty years for Disney to finally secure the film rights.
- 8/26/2014
- by Daniel Bettridge
- Cineplex
A Girls star is becoming the boy who wouldn't grow up. Allison Williams has been cast in the titular role in NBC's Peter Pan Live!, the network announced Wednesday. "I have wanted to play Peter Pan since I was about 3 years old, so this is a dream come true," Williams said in a statement. "It's such an honor to be a part of this adventure, and I'm very excited to get to work with this extraordinarily talented team. And besides, what could go wrong in a live production with simultaneous flying, sword-fighting and singing?" Though the iconic character is a boy,...
- 7/30/2014
- by Michele Corriston, @mcorriston
- PEOPLE.com
With this Allison Williams news upon us, let us be neither the first nor last to point you toward the original Peter Pan starring Mary Martin. It's a nostalgia fest for those of us who wore out the VHS, but also evidence that a woman could (and did!) play the most wonderful version of Peter Pan there ever was. Williams surely has big shoes to fill. (That is, if her version of Peter Pan wears shoes.)...
- 7/30/2014
- by Lindsey Weber
- Vulture
That collective “whaaaaa?!” you heard around 9:40 a.m. this morning was the sound of the internet learning that NBC had cast Girls star Allison Williams as the title role in its upcoming production of Peter Pan Live.
On its surface, the decision seems, well, kind of bizarre. Think about it for a minute, though, and you may get where NBC is coming from: Williams is a practiced, experienced singer, and she’s also long harbored dreams of voicing a Disney character someday. (This Pan musical is different from Disney’s animated take, but it’s just as much of a family-friendly classic.
On its surface, the decision seems, well, kind of bizarre. Think about it for a minute, though, and you may get where NBC is coming from: Williams is a practiced, experienced singer, and she’s also long harbored dreams of voicing a Disney character someday. (This Pan musical is different from Disney’s animated take, but it’s just as much of a family-friendly classic.
- 7/30/2014
- by Hillary Busis
- EW.com - PopWatch
Just as Mary Martin did long ago, Girls' Allison Williams will play Peter Pan in NBC's Peter Pan Live! (exclamation mark theirs, not ours). Get that girl a flying harness! (exclamation mark ours). She'll go up against Christopher Walken's likely kooky Hook and her casting will guarantee even more internet coverage than greeted The Sound of Music Live! (again, exclamation point theirs). "Dreams do come true!" tweets NBC: It's really hard not to imagine that this is Marnie Michaels's dream somehow coming to life through a wacky NBC/HBO crossover. I guess it's Williams's, too:...
- 7/30/2014
- by Lindsey Weber
- Vulture
There has been a long history of girls playing the title role in "Peter Pan," so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that NBC's "Peter Pan Live!" has found its leading lady on HBO's "Girls." NBC announced on Wednesday (July 30) morning that Allison Williams will play Peter Pan in the network's second live musical, which will air on December 4. Williams will appear opposite Christopher Walken, who was previously cast as the nefarious Captain Hook. "Allison Williams is a major find," blurb executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. "She will reinvent the iconic role of Peter Pan with her wit, her warmth, her dynamic flying and her wonderful musical abilities. The score will be sung beautifully and introduced to a whole new generation of families." Adds NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, "We couldn’t be happier that Allison Williams is our Peter Pan. She’s a lovely rising star on the...
- 7/30/2014
- by Daniel Fienberg
- Hitfix
Yes, you read that title right. Christopher Walken has been cast as the villainous Captain Hook in a new Peter Pan musical being developed by NBC! I've got to admit that I'm kind of shocked by this news. I never thought in million years that Walken would ever play a character like this, especially on a TV series. It's pretty damn awesome though! Walken is going to be amazing… as always. Here's what the actor had to say in a statement:
"I started my career in musicals and it’s wonderful after all this time, at this point in my career, to be in this classic musical I watched as a child and to work with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan again after Hairspray. It’s a chance to put on my tap shoes again."
NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt had this to say in a statement:
"He's one of...
"I started my career in musicals and it’s wonderful after all this time, at this point in my career, to be in this classic musical I watched as a child and to work with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan again after Hairspray. It’s a chance to put on my tap shoes again."
NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt had this to say in a statement:
"He's one of...
- 7/14/2014
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
NBC, putting together a cast for their upcoming Peter Pan Live! special, has cast Christopher Walken for Hook but is still searching for the lead role after missing out on Kristen Bell.
Christopher Walken Cast As Hook
Walken’s casting as Captain Hook in NBC’s follow-up to The Sound of Music was announced by network chairman Bob Greenblatt at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour on Sunday.
"[Christopher] is one of the most unique actors in our business," Greenblatt said. "He might really just be a song and dance man at heart. ... This might be the first tap dancing Captain Hook you've ever seen."
"The exhilarating thing about doing these live musicals is giving the stage to a thrilling performer like Chris, and seeing his once-in-a-lifetime performance unfold at the same moment the audience is watching at home," Greenblatt added.
Walken, who has 13 Broadway credits to his name...
Christopher Walken Cast As Hook
Walken’s casting as Captain Hook in NBC’s follow-up to The Sound of Music was announced by network chairman Bob Greenblatt at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour on Sunday.
"[Christopher] is one of the most unique actors in our business," Greenblatt said. "He might really just be a song and dance man at heart. ... This might be the first tap dancing Captain Hook you've ever seen."
"The exhilarating thing about doing these live musicals is giving the stage to a thrilling performer like Chris, and seeing his once-in-a-lifetime performance unfold at the same moment the audience is watching at home," Greenblatt added.
Walken, who has 13 Broadway credits to his name...
- 7/13/2014
- Uinterview
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