Christopher Walken cast as Captain Hook in Peter Pan Live!- Page 6

[gcal]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 1:33pm

I would love to see Amy Poehler as Smee.

[TheOtherPattiLupone]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 2:08pm

Personally, I would love to see AnnaSophia Grace as Peter.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 2:39pm

I don't know the show too well. I've only heard Amy Poehler sing on the "Brotherhood of Man" NBC Super Bowl commercial. I would love to see her or Tina Fey. The ties to NBC would help. lol. I'm trying to think of any specific people with ties to the network. Christian Borle and Laura Benanti did and I'm sure that was an additional reason to include them in Sound of Music.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 2:59pm

I think Christopher Walken will be brilliant in this. That said, the only reason I was looking forward to this was the fact they were going to cast a male in a male role. That would have made this production special. If it's going to be another actress pretending to be a boy, I have no interest. Both Mary Martin and Cathy Rigby have videos of it live. Is there a need for another one?

[Jon]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 3:24pm

Chris Colfer as Peter. He can sing it in the original keys. He already gave us a sample on Glee.


Updated On: 7/14/14 at 03:24 PM

[Showface]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 3:31pm

Its already been comfirmed they are casting a female in the role.

I know she's pregnant and all, but I would love for Megan Hilty to play Mrs Darling.

[NOB88]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 3:34pm

I cast Kelly Pickler as Tiger Lily.

[willep]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 3:44pm

"That said, the only reason I was looking forward to this was the fact they were going to cast a male in a male role."

...that was never a fact.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 4:28pm

"That said, the only reason I was looking forward to this was the fact they were going to cast a male in a male role."

This was never a fact. It was made pretty clear, from the beginning, they would be casting a female.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 6:15pm

Fact or not, it was the only thing that made me want to see it.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 6:24pm

To get back to Mandy Moore - no she has never been a huge name...but she IS Rapunzel in Tangled..and that's a good selling point. Tangled is not Frozen - but still an extremely popular movie and she was a very popular heroine.

I still love the idea..

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 7:09pm

I don't understand why they couldn't go with a male actor this time. In fact, that's what I thought they were going to do -- target the tween demographic by casting the teen heartthrob of the moment.

My gripe with female Peters is that no matter how talented they are, they just can't pull off being a boy convincingly (i.e. Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes when she pretended to be the illegitimate son of Harvey Weinstein). They overdo the machismo. On stage, you can get away with such things like overacting and gender-bender/color-blind/age-blind casting, but TV/film is not very forgiving.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 7:14pm

I don't think it's about believing. It's about the suspension of disbelief from the audience.

If the producers make Peter a boy to be more "realistic," they how do they explain the big black wires that everyone can see in HD? I think they have to put their faith in the audience to go along with the story just as much as the characters on screen have to believe in fairies in order to fly.

BELIEVE!

... or fall on the ground.

[musicaljen]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 7:57pm

I also ask the same question why they couldn't go with a male actor for the lead? I am feeling disappointed, since it was the only thing why I was looking forward for
this presentation as it was going to be different from the others done previously.
I think that was a very wrong move NBC.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 8:28pm

besty, they can do what they did for the "I'm Flying" number (performed by Charlotte d'Aamboise) when the Kennedy Center honored Mary Martin 25 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJJqcEI1pnU&feature=youtu.be&t=15m26s

The wires are not visible at all!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 8:29pm

Casting a male actor in THIS musical adaptation of PETER PAN would have been hugely problematic. The score and sensibilities of it were written expressly for a woman (Mary Martin, specifically) to play the role. There is just no getting around the fact that a male actor singing this score risks comes across as effeminate.

If NBC were writing a completely new musical version of PETER PAN, I would have loved to see a male actor play the title role. But the musical version they have selected, which is the 1954 Mary Martin musicalization, in my opinion, doesn't work with a male actor.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 8:36pm

Michael Bennett, have you ever seen it performed with a male actor?

Well, then...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 8:57pm

Stagemanager2 -- Yes, I have seen two productions that had a male actor as Peter Pan. One professional (Robert Johansan at Peter Mill Playhouse) and one a community theater. In both instances, I thought they were at odd with the material.

They both came across something like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFuvRsFNvA

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 9:17pm

Well, that's what happens when you cast an effete gay boy.

But there are masculine boy actors/singers.

BTW: That was hilarious when he slammed into the wall while spinning mid-air. XD

.

Updated On: 7/14/14 at 09:17 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 9:31pm

I think even if you had Sylvestor Stallone singing those songs, it would still spark the audience to question the actor's sexuality. There is nothing masculine about the music in this version. That's my point.

[musicaljen]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 10:56pm

I understand your point about nothing masculine in the score. Personally, I am
beginning to question why the producers went for this piece, since after I am
flying the libretto simply falls flat, and nothing exciting happens from there.
However, I will stop here and wait for the ratings to come out. that is what I am
going to look forward too.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/15/14 at 3:19am

I bet they go after Ariana Grande now that her Nickelodian show has been canceled.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/15/14 at 4:24am

To this day, I am still absolutely convinced that Mary Martin should have walked from that box to that stage and strangled Charlotte D'Amboise for that. When the stand out in that scene is JOHN...

I am not going to waste space or fingers going into a lengthy monologue about Barrie and the character and Barrie's on the role. Suffice to say that this score was written for Martin. Hands down, flat out. I can easily imagine a host of men singing this score better than Rigby. Duncan did not overly stretch to play Peter as a boy... She was incredibly effective and I wish I had seen her live, and her successor in that tour.

This story works best, for me, with a male Peter as it automatically mines levels in the storytelling that are ther but glossed over when played by a woman. I love this score, but Robbins' adaption has always left me cold. It is quite lazy, watered down, for using so many of Barrie's words, oblivious to the story.

If a male voice does not sit in this role in this score, it is less the fault of the music and lyrics and entirely the fault of the arrangements, which are easily remedied.

[TimesSquared]

Posted: 7/15/14 at 9:04am

The problem with Walken is he's notoriously inconsistent on stage. Always has been. He nails it about half the time. That's why he's great in movies, he gets lots of takes.
But I HATE Peter Pan anyway. I've never understood people's utter obsession with this weird tale to begin with, and the musical's gender switch and mostly odd numbers just highlights the weirdness.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/15/14 at 9:29am

It's not the musical's "gender switch"; the part was written to be played by a woman, and by-and-large has always been cast that way. The idea of a male Peter is a relatively recent one.


Updated On: 7/15/14 at 09:29 AM