Peter Pan?

(I'm feeling under the weather today -- cold.  So this is late getting posted and it might serve for tomorrow's post too.  I've got to get to feeling better before the holiday hits.  So bear with me, everyone!!)

I's deja vu all over again!!  When I was a little kid, the Broadway version of Peter Pan was brought to the TV screen.  Like Broadway, Mary Martin was the actress who played Peter Pan.  It was live TV back then and the performances were shown in 1954, 1955 and 1960.  I'm sure I saw at least two of them.

As a seven-year-old, watching Peter Pan was interesting.  I'd heard of the story through the Disney version that came out in 1953 and was pretty neat!  The thing is, though, pretty early in the whole play Mary Martin bothered me.  I knew she was a woman playing the part of a boy, and it just didn't jive for me.  I was uncomfortable, maybe even a little embarrassed for her, especially when she did the "I've Gotta Crow," thing.

Coincidentally, Cathy Rigby was tapped to be the next Peter Pan on Broadway in 1990 -- the year Mary Martin died.

Rigby played the part for 30 years!  And she was on television with it too.  I was still uncomfortable although she did a pretty darn good job of "flying" due to her amazing gymnastics talents.  No matter -- Rigby was a girl playing a boy.  Just didn't work for me.

And so we have a third iteration of the whole deal.  And who did they pick for Peter Pan?  The daughter of Brian Williams -- another woman playing a boy.  And this one, sad to say for her, seemed to have neither the talent of Mary Martin nor the gymnastics ability of Cathy Rigby.  The whole production got criticized quite a bit by the critics. 

And they made fun of Carrie Underwood in Sound of Music?  Are you kidding me?  Underwood's performance to me was a LOT better.  The sets were terrific and the actors believable in their roles.

Christopher Walken was born in 1943.  He was chosen for the role of Captain Hook.  Really?  My granddaughter was going into whoops of laughter telling me that Captain Hook kept calling Smee, "Schmee." through the whole thing.  "It's SMEE," she said with an eight-year-old's authority.

I like Christopher Walken, but this just makes no sense at all.  None.  That goofy guy that used to be married to Katy Perry would have worked at least in the face.  For Peter Pan, who would you have picked.  Are you telling me that there aren't some guys out there who took dance lessons for about 12 years and who can sing reasonably well who could play Peter?  How about that kid who was runner-up for American Idol a few years ago -- David Archuleta?  He's short (5'3")and kind of cute.

Justin Bieber comes to mind, not that he'd take the part, mind you. 

But I think you can see where I'm going here.  James Barrie wrote a wonderful story for kids, absolutely wonderful.  Do it right.  Do it some justice!  Get a better casting director for heaven's sake -- because you know it's going to make it's way around again.  Why?  Because it's a story that pits good against evil, leadership against following, cowardice against courage.  It's a take-off on those stories where there are things that go bump in the night.  In other words, just outside the front door, a kid might never know what he will find.

I hear the dog was really good.