Peter Pan Live

[nick_tochelli]

Given the overall theatrical....let's call it specialized attention from last year's Sound of Music Live, I'm a little surprised no one broached this subject yet.

Once again NBC created a cultural event for hate watching. My facebook feed said it all. "Who dressed these people?" "Wonder who's news anchor is the father of Tiger Lily?" "Walken is horrible" and more. I can't help but feeling that this is the same nonsense we heard about from 3 years ago (or so) about the actress who tore apart Into The Woods production and everyone destroyed her for it. There was a cry of "we're all in this together" and "if you can't be supportive, don't say anything about your fellow actors." How are these live performances of musicals any different? Also, how is it that no one reviewing these shows online understand that both the Sound of Music and Peter Pan were also live stage musicals and that's what these are based off and not a movie.

So did anyone watch it? Opinions? Am I entirely off base in thinking these musicals deserve more support from theater workers? Should they become a new holiday tradition?

[KMC]

How did I miss this???  Didn't even know it was on.   

[kellyaksm]

I only got to see part of it but I'm glad that NBC does this and I hope they continue to do so! Overall from what I saw I thought it was a good production. There were some choices I didn't particularly agree with but that's part of a creative product, different people have different ideas.
I haven't seen nearly as much of the hateful comments this year as last year but I think that the majority of the public won't understand that these productions are based off stage scripts and not movie versions for a least a few more years. I think its hard for many people to grasp that the movie version they know and love is not the only version of these stories. It would be interesting to see what would happen if NBC did a musical production that hasn't already been made into a movie and how people would react to that.
I think that part of the problem is also the stunt casting, people have a hard time seeing their favorite stars perform live in a different type of role than normal. I would love to see Hugh Jackman or someone else who has a stronger stage background and still enough of a name to draw a crowd.

[nick_tochelli]

How did I miss this???  Didn't even know it was on.   

I watch enough football that it was impossible to miss. To be fair they've called in for a bunch of stuff so I get a reminder every other day as they're buying expendables.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if NBC did a musical production that hasn't already been made into a movie and how people would react to that.
I think that part of the problem is also the stunt casting, people have a hard time seeing their favorite stars perform live in a different type of role than normal. I would love to see Hugh Jackman or someone else who has a stronger stage background and still enough of a name to draw a crowd.

If they did a musical no one had heard of I think their fear would be a general "meh" from the populace. They did already lose half their audience compared to the Sound of Music which they did expect so it wasn't a shocker.

I don't feel like it was horrible stunt casting. Williams did a decent job IMO and Walken was Walken. Hard to not love him even when he goes up on his lines.

[Gaby]

I only got to see part of it but I'm glad that NBC does this and I hope they continue to do so!

NBC totally plans on making this an annual event, which I think is pretty great. Anyway, as of now, NBC is doing "The Music Man" and I have read that FOX is trying to get in on the game and wants to do "Grease" next year.

[bkrst275]

Now, I'm a little biased because my school just did Peter Pan, but here's my review that I posted on my Tumblr:

Peter and Tiger Lily had no emotion, Chris Walken looked like he just wanted to go home the entire time, Wendy should’ve covered her ta-tas, and their fight choreographer should be fired. Other than that, it was pretty okay.

Oh! And if anybody wants to follow me... 
http://promptbookprogrammer.tumblr.com/

[MatthewShiner]

I haven't seen either of the live musical broadcasts, but in general, it seems to take all the best about live in person entertainment, and filter it through a filmed event, while not taking advantages of what film / videotape has to offer . . . it's odd in some ways.

But, I have a lot of friends who have gotten a lot of work out of these shows.  And that is great.

[bex]

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/blog/why-allison-williamss-peter-pan-didnt-fly-on-nbc

I feel like this article really hits the nail on the head with all of the issues with both of these live broadcasts.
I'm a huge fan of the idea of this, and of bringing "live theater" to the masses, but I feel like it's just problematic.

In particular, the comments about the camera work are something that bother me about basically any recording of a live performance that involves dancing (STOP IT WITH THE CLOSE-UPS, I WANNA WATCH THE CHOREOGRAPHY DANGIT! THAT'S WHY YOU HIRED THE DANCERS IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU BIG DUMMIES!).

Also, I think that NBC should have picked a show where they could have cast one of the many HUGE stars who will bring the name recognition but also have the Broadway experience to pull off a live performance. Neil Patrick Harris, Hugh Jackman, Idina Menzel is a household name now thanks to Frozen, Josh Gad, Jane Krakowski, & Andrew Rannells are fabulous stage actors who might surprise people who only know them from their TV/film roles, even some of the actors on Glee like Lea Michele or Matthew Morrison. It's not like the list of Hollywood A-Listers who also have mad Broadway chops is particularly short these days, and it's pretty obvious that the standout performances from both of the live broadcasts have been the Broadway stars cast in the supporting roles (Audra McDonald and Laura Benanti in Sound of Music last year, and Christian Borle and Kelli O'Hara this year). It takes a particular set of skills to perform a musical LIVE- lots of film actors have great singing voices but don't have that Broadway chutzpah or what-have-you and I think the producers need to acknowledge that in their casting in order to be really successful.

Anyway, if you're going to do it, (and I think they should keep on doing it!) just DO IT RIGHT.