Peter Pan Live! saw Allison Williams and Christopher Walken go head to head in NBC’s latest live musical.
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UPDATE (Friday, December 5): The ratings are in, and Peter Pan Live pulled in 9.1 million viewers and a 2.3 rating among adults 18 – 49. This audience is significantly smaller than last year’s live NBC musical, The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer, which pulled in an incredible 18.62 million viewers.
Nonetheless, NBC says they’re happy with the viewership and are already at work on next year’s live musical event. We suspect that they may pick a bigger star for the lead role next year – like they did with Underwood in 2013 – to help improve ratings.
Want to Peter Pan Live! online? Here you go:
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Girls star, Williams, transformed with a pixie cut to play the iconic title role, while Walken took on the role of the dastardly Captain Hook. Broadway veterans Kelli O’Hara and Christian Borle rounded out the cast. Peter Pan Live! marks Borle’s second meeting with the boy who never grows up; he previously starred as Black Stache in Broadway’s Peter and the Starcatcher, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Features Actor in a Play.
Related: Seven Peter Pan iterations we love – including Peter and the Starcatcher
On March 7, 1955 the first live broadcast of Peter Pan aired on NBC as the first full-length Broadway musical in color. Tonight a new batch of Broadway legends and television stars alike came together for a production that certainly surpasses its recent predecessor The Sound of Music.
Act I: The Darling Nursery
The Darling children, bouncing about are met by their stern father and jittery mother preparing to head out for the evening. Important business needs attending, and Father Darling’s face needs some massaging, but the opening scenes juggling children camera changes and one well behaved pup goes off without a hitch. Mother Darling (Kelli O’Hara) sings the children to sleep with “Tender Shepherd” and explains that a strange light keeps appearing in the window.
Enter a CGI Tinker Bell whose Bell is the only component of the opening Act that is out of tune. Peter swoops in looking for his shadow, and we get our first look at the magic of wires used in every production.
“Oh, I’m so clever. Oh the cleverness of me!” Peter’s opening number plays with some clever CGI effects, not unlike those found on Beyoncé’s tour, as Peter twirls around with his newly connected shadow. Peter eventually gets the kids hooked on some wires and as they soar over the London landscape the backdrop switches and we arrive in Act II.
Act II: Neverland
An alternate land where pirates clad in purple and red, tap dance with Christopher Walken and the trees are plucked straight out of Seussical. With the Pan out of the picture for now, Walken’s Captain Hook and his crew of pirates, including the very buff Christian Borle as Smee, take on “Pirate Song.” The number was the best vocally of company style performances. Walken’s Hook seemed unbearably bored by the entire prospect of his search for Pan, but somehow pulls off number after number.
The first look at the Lost Boys and Tiger Lily take the stage to show off their chops from their recent stint in the production of Newsies. The Lost Boy’s beautifully constructed hideaway keeps them separated from Hook and his dancing pirates and the threat of Tiger Lily and her tribe. Poison cakes and a few more musical numbers bring us to the highly promoted, “I Won’t Grow Up,” which is lackluster in comparison to the other performances.
Tiger Lily and Peter form a truce and make great strides from the original version of Peter Pan, reimagining the old song “Ugg-a-Wugg,” with newer lyrics (and a dash of amazing choreography). With a lullaby, we welcome back Mama Darling opening the window for her children as they begin to feel homesick.
Act III: The Jolly Roger
Peter Pan’s down in the dull drums, and it is not until Tink nearly meets her demise that a spark is once again lit in his spirit. Allison William’s reprise of “I’m Flying” picked up the pace to send the musical on the way to its end, starting of course with Walken’s final number aboard the ship, “Hook’s Waltz,” showing off that two-step once more.
The battle scene, the climax of the night, comes with some choreographed sword fighting, could have ended much earlier considering Hook appeared to need a nap halfway through. Hook headed off to his fate with the human crocodile.
Back in England, Mama Darling laments about her lost children and sings a reprise of “Tender Shepherd” and the Darlings appear in the window and into the arms of their mother and father. The Lost Boys make their way into the home as well, taken in as orphans because who wouldn’t want 12 more brothers?
In the future, Peter returns to England, but Wendy (now played by Minnie Driver) is too old to go back to Never Land, but her daughter Jane flies off to “Never Never Land.”
The talent and production value of Peter Pan Live! is undeniably exceptional. It’s always fun to poke fun at the the numbers, the wires, and the less than perfect numbers, but overall Peter Pan Live! was a rousing success.
Peter Pan Live! is NBC’s second live musical. Last year’s The Sound of Music Live! pulled in 18.46 million viewers, making it the highest watched non-sport event since the finale of ER in 2009. The live performance starred Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer as Maria and Captain Von Trapp respectively.
Unfortunately for NBC, many of those viewers used The Sound of Music Live! as an opportunity to live-tweet their less-than-favourable opinions of Underwood’s performance. That mixed reaction hasn’t stopped Fox who, no doubt inspired by NBC’s high ratings, are developing Grease Live for broadcast in 2015.
What did you think of ‘Peter Pan Live’?
We’ll be eager to see the ratings for NBC’s second live musical tomorrow.
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