WHOA THERE!!! A PETER PAN POST - AND I WASN'T THE FIRST TO RESPOND???!!!
::walks the plank...sees the Croc...and runs up to the Crow's nest::
DietCoke, you poor unfortunate! Don't you realize that "poor quality" means it is a CLASSIC!!!
The Mary Martin PETER PAN that we have on video was filmed in 1960. It was released to video in the early 1980's. The quality is poor (yet still great for its time!) because it was one of the first shows to be videotaped for video release. Mary Martin (and the WORLD!) wanted this show to be preserved so others in the future would be able to see the show.
It had already broadcast TWO ***LIVE*** television broadcasts in 1955 and 1956. The public demand for yet another broadcast was very high. People couldn't get enough of it! When it was videotaped in 1960, they did it in COLOR for the first time (it was worth the extra expense, for color was much more money to do than black & white at the time). The show was broadcast during Christmas annually on NBC from then on, but it soon died down and it was stopped being broadcast.
Sandy Duncan took the role in 1979, but wasn't allowed to do a cast recording because of legal issues with the Great Ormond Street Hospital (copyright owners).
Cathy Rigby then put on the green tights in 1990, but again, no cast recording for the same reason.
But in 1997, when Rigby revived the show again, GOSH gave in, and a new Peter Pan cast recording was finally done!!
And that is your Peter Pan history lesson for today.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
Updated On: 8/15/04 at 12:36 PM