Peter Pan (theatre)



Besides being a stage play in one of its original incarnations (refer to the main article), Peter Pan has been adapted as a musical twice.

The first was done in 1950 and is the lesser known of the two, although it was done by Broadway legand Leonard Bernstein (of West Side Story fame). It was originally staged with only 5 songs. Since 2000, new productions have been put on incorporating the previously Cut Songs and generally restoring the work to the original written version.

The version most people think of when they think of Peter Pan: The Musical is the 1954 version originally staring Mary Martin as Peter (the musical continues the tradition of cross-casting women as young boy Peter to this day). Its notability can be attributed to the fact that NBC aired live stagings of the play several times between 1954 and 1960, to excellent ratings. The 1960 production was released on VHS tape (and DVD since), making it the canonical version of the show.