It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Peter Pan (1955, 1956, 1960) – Musical #792, 793, 794

Studio:
NBC

Director:
1955: Clark Jones
1956: ?
1960: Vincent J. Donehue

Starring:
1955: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Kathleen Nolan, Sondra Lee, Margalo Gillmore, Heller Halliday, Robert Harrington, Joe E. Mark, Norman Shelly, Joseph Richard Stafford
1956: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Kathleen Nolan, Sondra Lee, Margalo Gillmore, Heller Halliday, Michael Allen, Tom Halloran, Robert Banas, David Bean, Linda Dangcil,
1960: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Sondra Lee, Maureen Bailey, Margalo Gillmore, Joey Trent, Heller Halliday

Plot:
Peter Pan (Martin) visits the Darling children and tells them how he ran away from home as a baby, because he never wants to grow up. The Darling children fly to Never Never Land with Peter Pan, where they meet the Lost Boys, other children that have never grown up, and fight off Capt. Hook (Ritchard) and his pirates, who are trying to kill Peter Pan for getting even for an alligator eating his arm. The children soon get homesick and return home, promising to return.

Trivia:
• The play and television broadcast were based on the book and play by Sir J.M. Barrie
• The original cast of the 1954 Broadway musical reprised their roles in the 1955 and 1956 television broadcasts, including Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, who won Tony Awards for their role in the Broadway show.
• The 1955 and 1956 productions were shown on the anthology show, “Producer’s Showcase” on NBC. The musical aired on March 7, 1955, and Jan. 9, 1956. The 1960 show was a standalone broadcast, not associated with a television show, Dec. 8, 1960.
• While the cast changed the most in 1960, the
• Choreographed by Jerome Robbins

Highlights:
• Mary Martin and her daughter Heller Halliday performing together
• Mary Martin saying goodbye at the end of the 1956 Broadcast

Notable Songs:
• “Never Never Land” performed by Mary Martin
• “Tender Shepherd” performed by the Darling children
• “I’m Flying” performed by Mary Martin and the Darling children
• “I Won’t Grow Up” performed by Mary Martin and
• “Hook’s Tarantella” performed by Cyril Ritchard
• “Wendy” performed by Mary Martin and the Lost Boys
• “Distant Melody” performed by Mary Martin

My review:
Almost my whole life, I’ve heard of the televised Mary Martin “Peter Pan.” My mom would share fond memories about watching it growing up — clapping to make Tinkerbell live. I also knew that the broadcast was important in the history of live television.

When it came to finally watching it, this one was a bit difficult to review, because I didn’t realize there were so many Mary Martin “Peter Pan” broadcasts — three to be exact.

There is the 1955 original television broadcast, the 1956 broadcast which many consider is the best, and then the 1960 broadcast which is in color and nearly double the length of the others — All starring Mary Martin.

Which do you pick? Well I decided to watch them all for the purpose of this review. Before I break down my review of each broadcast, I’ll provide an overall look at the story.

The NBC television broadcasts are straight television adaptations of the “Peter Pan” Broadway musical, made famous by Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard. In the story, Peter Pan (Martin) visits the Darling children and tells them how he ran away from home as a baby, because he never wants to grow up. The Darling children fly to Never Never Land with Peter Pan, where they meet the Lost Boys, other children that have never grown up, and fight off Capt. Hook (Ritchard) and his pirates, who are trying to kill Peter Pan for getting even for an alligator eating his arm. The children soon get homesick and return home, promising to return.

Overall, for being such a well-known show and television event, I was surprised I was not familiar with a single song. And though they have been stuck in my head for days (especially “I Won’t Grow Up” and “I Gotta Crow”), I wouldn’t say that any of the songs are very good. The only songs that I thought were nice were “Never Never Land” and “Distant Melody” lullaby.

Watching all three televised broadcasts of “Peter Pan” with Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, they are all nearly identical. Some have casting differences—the 1955 and 1956 have a different John and Michael Darling, and the 1960 version has all different children cast throughout.

Here’s a recap of each show with the history behind it:

1955:
The Broadway production of “Peter Pan” closed on Feb. 26, 1955, and this first Broadcast aired days later on March 7, 1955, as part of the anthology show, “Producer’s Showcase” on NBC. Filmed live, the show aired to 60 million viewers. The show was filmed in a Brooklyn studio using all of the original cast, sets and costumes.

“In my opinion it ranks with the best shows in TV’s short history,” wrote Walter Ames of the Los Angeles Times.

This was the first time an entire play had been transformed into a two hour TV special. The 1955 version is interesting, but you can tell they were still trying to figure out how to put this show on television.

1956:
The second time this aired was on Jan. 9, 1956, again performed live on the “Producer’s Showcase” on NBC.

Aside from a few casting changes, this broadcast is quite similar to the 1955 version, though the quality is improved upon.

This version is largely considered as the best of the broadcasts.

1960:
In the third and last broadcast starring Mary Martin, this version was taped rather than filmed live And for that reason, Mary Martin felt it was the worst, since it wasn’t live.

“I hate it. I really hate it. It has a ‘So what?’ feeling to it,” Martin said in an interview.

This was rehearsed and filmed while Martin was on the stage as “Sound of Music.” Despite her later feelings about the broadcast, she made positive moments about it leading up to the television event.

“People love Peter Pan so it is worth any effort,” she said in an interview. “Why, since we last did the show on television in 1956, the mail has never stopped coming in—mail from people all over, from adults and from children, asking that we do it again. Ow that the show is being put on tape, it will be a permanent treasure.”

Despite Martin not liking this version, I thought this one was perhaps the best. In my opinion, the color helped this TV broadcast pop a bit more. Despite the color, they use the same sets from the earlier productions, according to Martin’s biographer.

I also liked this one the best, because Martin sang more with her normal voice, rather than constantly trying to sing like a little boy like in the earlier productions. I wondered if this was because she was in the midst of filming “The Sound of Music.”

Recap of all:
Frankly, this show is not for me. But before I go into the negatives, I can say what I felt worked best for me. The highlight of the show was Mary Martin and her daughter, Heller Halliday, singing the duet when Peter Pan is teaching Liza to crow. I thought their duet was very sweet, and Halliday said in an interview that she had so much fun with her mother.

I also think that Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard are both very good, and I thought it was funny when Capt. Hook kept singing his plans in different dance tempos.

There are so many odd things. For starters—Nana the dog is a person in a dog suit? The animals? It’s all so weird.

In addition, the biggest dud of the show to me is Sondra Lee as Tiger Lily. The role and character are obviously in bad taste, but also Lee is frankly annoying. I’m confused are the Native American characters also supposed to be children pretending like the Lost Boys?

Also for dances staged by Jerome Robbins, I expected a bit more. Maybe was larger on stage? I l also didn’t expect the 1955 or 1956 versions to be over an hour long.

I guess I’m surprised I didn’t care for the story or music, because I really thought I was going to love this iconic story and performance. I’ll admit, watching all of these felt like a chore and I need a long break from anything “Peter Pan” related.