Peter Pan

When Jerome Robbins decided that the time was ripe to stage a new version of Peter Pan, with Mary Martin as the boy who wouldn’t grow up and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, he initially planned to use only a few incidental songs by newcomers Mark Charlap and Carolyn Leigh. After the play began evolving into a full-fledged musical, however, he went to the more experienced team of Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green for the additional numbers. Following its unveiling as part of Edwin Lester’s Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Opera series, the show came to New York offering such pleasures as Miss Martin singing and flying at the same time and Ritchard playing the villainous Hook as a giggling, mincing Restoration dandy. Peter Pan was first presented in New York in 1905 with Maude Adams as Peter, a role she virtually made her own for eight years. It was revived in 1924 with Marilyn Miller singing two songs by Jerome Kern, and in 1950 with Jean Arthur, Boris Karloff plus five songs by Leonard Bernstein. That version lasted nine months. A 1979 revival, starring Sandy Duncan in a production based on the 1954 musical, turned out to be the longest running — or flying — Peter Pan ever performed in New York. (See page 254.) RCA OC/ SF.

Music

Mark Charlap*; Jule Styne**

Lyrics

Carolyn Leigh*; Betty Comden & Adolph Green**