NBC’s ‘Peter Pan Live!’ Not So Magical?
NBC’s live version of the fairy tale classic ” Peter Pan,” left much to be desired, yet wasn’t quite as horrendous as many were expecting it to be. After last year’s live production of “The Sound of Music,” which starred Carrie Underwood, who had a personality like a piece of plywood, many expected “Peter Pan Live!” to never get off the ground.
That’s not to say it soared. It certainly didn’t fly to heights of success that one would expect any production of such a beloved fairy tale to reach. It was simply not half bad.
Viewers tuned in by the millions to see if Allison Williams could sing and carry the show and perhaps to see Christopher Walken wow the audience with his moves once more. Entertainment Weekly remarks on Walken’s performance.
“Walken mostly sang-spoke his way through his musical numbers, but his Joan Crawford eyebrows and Dracula-in-velour-pants accent brought out his charm, and the cast of long-haired pirates dancing behind him like Dothraki renegades served as a reminder that the guy is over 70 years old, and he can still scarf-dance with the twentysomethings.”
As for Allison Williams in the lead Peter Pan role, many were expecting a miss. Deadline comments that the Girls star proved the snarky naysayers wrong and did the part justice by being “graceful, game, limber” and singing her lines ” in a lovely voice through all three hours of the show.”
In addition to Williams’ and Walken’s performances, the five-time Tony Nominee Kelli O’Hara met expectations by singing in her Broadway-beautiful octaves bringing Mrs. Darling to life and causing the audience to be keen on hearing her every word.
So where did the production of J.M Barrie’s beloved fairy tale fall flat? Well it didn’t plummet to the hard ground with a crash, it simply hovered and dragged along as a somewhat boring and overly lengthy sketch with “clunky transitions,” “ungraceful wire-work” and as cleveland.com critiques, “was an oddly ponderous, disconnected, disjointed and jerky mess. If it had been a Broadway show, it would have gotten the hook (pun intended).”
In addition, the camera work was shoddy while cutting away awkwardly and too quickly often. Also sweeping camera views by times caught more of the characters backs while in the middle of a dialogue-based scene.
That’s not to say that the production was a complete fail. The Twitterverse was anticipating a complete flop for “Peter Pan Live!” after last year’s zombie-like production of NBC’s “The Sound of Music.” Many were waiting ready to tweet away about the embarrassing hiccups of this year’s production. However, “Peter Pan Live!” managed to be just entertaining enough that it avoided being pummeled by such harsh criticism.
Hank Stuever of the Washington Post certainly found the fairy dust while viewing the performance, stating, “It will never look easy, but they made it look like fun. And it’s still a worthy idea, to stage a live musical on network TV while enduring and even coyly inviting the instantly shared scrutiny and criticism of millions.”
[Feature image courtesy of NBC]
