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

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 3:48pm

I think people should have an open mind and consider the possiblity of a male (i.e. young adult / 12 year old boy) to be cast as "Peter Pan." It would make for an interesting "hook". Yes, Mary Martin and Cathy Rigby were each wonderful in their own way. I'm too young to remember any possible controversy when Mary Martin was cast in the "boy" role. I will say that if people got used to the idea of an established female actress as "Peter Pan", then casting an actual male as "Peter Pan" should be given due consideration. We're in 2008. Anything is possible. My only question involves casting. Who would be an ideal male and female candidate for the role of "Peter Pan" in a tv film? I had a thought. As Cathy Rigby (an Olympic gymnast in 1968 and 1972) was accepted as Peter, then perhaps another Olympian might work out as well. The first male possibility that came to mind was figure skater Johnny Weir. I don't know if he can sing, but he could mime the words? It could happen? Just wondering..... from RC in Austin, Texas

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 4:53pm

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

[lakezurich]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 7:42pm

Patti LuPone FANatic, I don't think there would have been any up-roar caused by Mary Martin's portrayal of Peter, because the tradition of a female playing Peter dates all the way back to the original staging of the non-musical version, I believe. So a female playing the part was in no way, shape, or form a new idea. But I was not alive during the time, so I don't know what was said about martin playing the part.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 10:15pm

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.

[Not Barker, Todd.]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 12:36am

I wish they were doing the Drewe/Stiles version. That team needs more exposure IMO, and as I said before, this has been filmed before.

[puppetman2]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 12:55am

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.

[mateo]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 12:56am

Here's your answer bitches:

Neil Meron & Craig Zadan with Film Journal Int'l

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003616681

Who’ll fill the title role is anybody’s guess at this point, but “Peter Pan will definitely be a woman,” Zadan insists. “The tradition is for women to play that part. It was written for Mary Martin. The songs were written in a woman’s key. The way we’d never dream of casting a woman as Edna in Hairspray, we’d never dream of casting a man as Peter Pan.”


Zadan told NY1's "On Stage"

"Our next musical that we're going to do is for TV. We're going to do Peter Pan. No one's ever made a movie musical of the Mary Martin Peter Pan. [The previous televised version] was on videotape." Although the title role has yet to be cast, Zadan added, "We would never break the tradition of casting a woman in it...because it was written for Mary Martin and it was conceived for a woman, and we wouldn't think of changing that."

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 12:59am

Thanks, mateo!

[mateo]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:02am

welcome!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:04am

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.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:41am

Isn't it funny how men used to play women all the time since women were not allowed on stage and no one ever questioned it. Now women play boys on stage all the time and it's no big deal, some people are offended by men playing women and we're sitting her arguing that a woman can't play a boy on film. History is bizarre.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:43pm

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

[Jonny boy]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 2:16pm

I was Obsessed with the Mary Martin version when I was a kid.... I alsmost think that it wouldn't work as well if they did have a boy play Peter.

[acrocksyo]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 3:14pm

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.

[mateo]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 4:08pm

ac....

<---


lol. jk.

[LittleSally]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 4:15pm

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.