Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't expect the 1955 kinescope, January 22, 2002
This edition of the famous Mary Martin "Peter Pan" is not the very first 1955 telecast. That telecast is preserved on kinescope, not videotape, and most likely exists only in black and white, as kinescopes were unable to reproduce color.
Instead, this is the 1960 production of that same musical, here preserved in color, and those who are expecting a "different" production need not worry. Most of the original Broadway cast is still here--the exceptions are the children, who naturally have been cast to replace the 1955 kids who of course had outgrown their roles. Wendy and Jane in this production are played by Maureen Bailey, who, although having an attractive singing voice, is a shrill actress who quickly gets on one's nerves (unlike Kathleen Nolan, who went on to have a successful career on television after "Peter Pan"). Liza the maid is played not by Mary Martin's daughter Heller Halliday, but by Jacqueline Mayro.
But practically everything else is the same as the 1955 production, and those who think that they have grown up watching that 1955 production are mistaken; it is this 1960 production which has been rerun over and over on television and issued on video. Yes, the sets look cheesy in comparison to what we would see today, and you can see the wires when the actors fly, but you will most likely never see a better, more heartfelt production of "Peter Pan" than this version. It is the only one which truly captures the spirit, humor and poignancy of the story, unlike the chintzy, superficial Cathy Rigby production. Mary Martin as Peter, Cyril Ritchard as Mr. Darling and Captain Hook, and Joe E. Marks as Smee have never been bettered by any other actors playing these roles.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Peter Pan in Living Color .. in Brooklyn!, November 13, 2000
By A Customer
This DVD is copied from the 1960 NBC-TV version of the Mary Martin Broadway musical. It was done on live TV [videotape was still experimental] each year from 1955 on. There's a black-and-white kinescope version of the 1955 telecast "broadcast in compatible color and black-and-white" in the NBC news archives. The 1955 telecast is considered to be the first adaptation of a Broadway musical to be broadcast live, and in color.In 1960, the folks at NBC decided to put the classic to videotape, and assembled the cast at NBC's studios in Brooklyn .. the only NBC studio outside of Burbank that had sufficient ceiling height so stagehands could do the intricate wire technique that Martin and her fellow actors used to fly through the sets. Think about this "Peter Pan" as a period piece; a slice of television's past that is fortunately well-preserved. With its grand, over-saturated RCA color ... the Broadway staging ... with choreography by the famed Jerome Robbins ... and its mono soundtrack. Not to mention the non-politically-correct Indians .. and a superb Cyril Ritchard Captain Hook. Color TV was only about 7 years old as a mass medium when this production was captured on tape. Color videotape was only 3 years old. The original tape was 2" in width, and the original tape container weighed close to 15 pounds! The cameras weighed upwards of 300 pounds, and were connected by cables as big as a large man's wrist. There were no zoom lenses. You can see some of the camera shakes in many of the dolly and tracking shots. The tape was shown yearly around Christmas time by NBC throughout the 1960s and '70s. Then some problems ensued between the charity in Britain that holds the rights to the J.M. Barrie original, and NBC. In the late 1980's the late NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff was able to clear up the rights problems, get the tape transferred and restored to modern standards. Could use a further cleaning-up using the newest restoration technology. Enjoy, have a good, safe laugh ... and just remember you're looking at history!
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Childhood Memories, November 3, 2004
The Mary Martin version of Peter Pan will always be my link to the past when it comes to musical theatre. I grew up watching these characters, dancing along to the Indian dance, and memorizing nearly every line.
Mary Martin's portreyal of Peter lacks the aura the author wrote into his first stage play "Peter Pan" (later adapted by him into the book "Peter and Wendy"), which was a reckless, and forever young child. However, Martin's acting prowess soon helps us ignore that fact.
It should be noted that though it was taped live for NBC, there is no audience present. There are also several differences from the recently broadcast A&E version. Martin's version contains the hillarious "Mysterious Lady" sequence, while Cathy Rigby's production treats the rescue of Tiger Lily as it happened on Marooner's Rock (as written in the book).
These two versions (assuming you have seen them both) are different enough to not be compared directly. Each of them have their own pros and cons,and both are very enjoyable.
This DVD is a must own for all who, like I did, grew up watching Mary Martin fly around the stage in the colorful world of NBC's timeless broadcast of "Peter Pan."
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