Zadan and Meron Get Rights To PETER PAN; Fastracked For ABC — Page 3

Johnny's still competing. You'd need a retired olympian and by then he'd be too old.

Mary Martin's PETER PAN has been broadcast on TV for years...so the "because it's film, a female would never work!" thinking is not legit. When I was a kid, I wore out two VHS tapes of it. It's stuck around for a long, long time until DVD technology became mainstream. It was on DVD for a short time and is OOP.

Oh - and as previously stated, Cathy Rigby's PETER PAN was broadcast on TV and is readily available on DVD as well. Rigby's PP was more "modern" in the was film is shot now, closeups and all.

What it all comes down to is this: I get that we're all ready for a boy/male to FINALLY play Peter. I'm all for it, too. But NOT in the Charlap/Leigh/Comden/Green musical. The part was WRITTEN for Mary Martin - a female with a female vocal range! If ABC were producing the Stiles & Drewe musical of PETER PAN then I would say a male should be cast, but the fact that they are doing THIS version of the musical means a female SHOULD play Peter.

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I saw Mary Martin's PAN during the preBroadway tryout in San Francisco. On stage the illusion of Pan being a boy was great. She carried it off extremely well. Pan is a magical creature so the gender is really a moot point.
I've also seen productions of the show with boys playing the part and they also worked.
One thing that most people here in the US are really not too aware of is the Pantomime tradition in England. This is one of the things that contributed to a female playing Pan in the first place. In pantomines there is the tradition of the Principal Boy - this was ALWAYS a female. Many actresses based their whole careers on being Principal BOYS. So in pantomines (which are not wordless productions but elaborate musical versions mainly of fairy tales done at the holiday time) there were two females in the leading roles - Cinderella and the Prince would both be famales. Also there was the Dame - a male comic who played famale parts like Aladdin's mother.
So in England, a female playing Pan was never in question.
If this is confusing, just accept it as a different country's tradition.

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Thanks, mateo!

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I wonder what woman they are thinking of hiring then.
I hope not Amy Adams, I love her to death, but I don't want her to get type-cast in this sort of role.

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i just read about this on Playbill and i have to wonder why Disney doesn't put their efforts toward something that HAS NOT BEEN FILMED. they could easily do a TV version of "Take Me Along" or something fun and light-hearted. why bother rehashing old material? this is gonna be like POCAHONTAS 2 and cut out the good parts (like when she got cholera and died).

i smell Nazi in the air.... oh wait! that's Disney

Bleh, why stick with a woman when you don't have to! There are reasons why it's an adult woman on stage, the same reason why adult women play Hansel in Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel. It's too vocally demanding for 8 shows a week. But uh let's break the mold and cast a boy in the role. Or do something else that hasn't been filmed twice already.

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I know I am biased since I played Peter Pan in a community theatre production, but I can't imagine a boy trying to sing "Mysterious Lady". I know that the song was written for Martin and is not always included but it is such a fun addition to the show.