Look, Peter Pan is not a great piece of musical theater. You know it. I know it. Vegetable Lasagna here knows it. It is a very light children’s story which can pleasantly divert a family’s attention for a couple of hours. It is a harmless piece of material. These are the types of musicals I, typically, do not respond to. So, I went into NBC’s second venture into the live musical telecast, after the massive ratings success of “The Sound of Music Live!“, wanting a good time and hoping they will have learned from some of their mistakes with last year’s production. I mostly got what I expected. It was a decent production of a mediocre musical. However, there was one monkey wrench thrown in I really did not expect, but more on that later.
The biggest problem with “The Sound of Music Live!” was, of course, Carrie Underwood in the lead role of Maria. She was completely wrong for the part, both vocally and in performance. She is not an actor, and that performance really showed that. She has a terrific voice for the type of music she makes with her day job, but that Rodgers and Hammerstein score did not fit her at all. This is the one issue NBC had to get right this time. They had to cast someone as Peter Pan who could actually do the role justice. Thankfully, they went with Allison Williams.
Williams makes the most out of every second of her screen time. She is gregarious, funny, charming, and can really sing. Her take on Pan is a little more a boy in his early teen years rather than a little kid, which I found way more engaging than usual. The joy you see on her face when she gets pulled up into the air to fly sucks you in instantly. You want to be flying right alongside her. Then, when she has to pull off the drama of the ending, she can nail it. Williams is a large part as to why this production did not feel like a slog. It is a tough job, and she pulled it off.
Most of the cast around her serve their parts well. Taylor Louderman was appropraitely doe-eyed and lovely as Wendy, with a beautiful voice. Christian Borle was an expected scene stealer as Smee and Mr. Darling. Kelli O’Hara got to show off her angelic voice to the masses. The Lost Boys danced up a storm, as did Tiger Lily (Alanna Saunders) and her tribe. You may notice I have not brought up someone yet. The biggest name in the cast. The reason many were tuning in to watch. How was Christopher Walken as Captain Hook?
Walken, no matter what he does, is an interesting performer. I was looking forward to watching him have a grand ol’ time camping it up as Captain Hook, dancing and “singing” as only Walken can. Unfortunately, watching him in this was kind of painful. It is not that he was bad. He was boring, a word I never thought I would use to describe Christopher Walken. There was no fire in his eyes, no life in his body. He was marking the part rather than performing it. He has a couple of good scenes where he harnesses some energy, notably in the “Wonderful World Without Peter” sequence that is quite a bit of fun and added for this production. He does some dancing, his singing was rather curious (particularly when they would cut back to him holding a “note” briefly during a commercial break), and it never cohered to something interesting. It is a shame, really.
Another issue I thought NBC needed to clear up was with the sound mix, which improved in some ways and was worse in others. In “The Sound of Music Live!”, the orchestra was set at such a low level you could barely hear them over the singing. For “Peter Pan Live!”, the balance between the two is much more even. The musical numbers sound great. When it cuts to just dialogue scenes, though, the room tone is distractingly loud, occasionally drowning out small bits of dialogue.
Because it is live, people were waiting and/or hoping for a technical disaster to happen. Allison Williams flying into a wall or something akin to that. Nothing like that happened. Sure, you would occasionally see the shadow of the camera operator, or they would tilt the camera too high and see the lights. But there was nothing major.
The absolute worst thing about the production actually had nothing to do with the production itself. “Peter Pan Live!” was sponsored by Wal-Mart, so we were subjected to countless commercials for the corporation with spokespersons Melissa Joan Hart and Anthony Anderson. They would try to tie them in with what was happening in the story of the show, and each one felt more awkward and terrible than the last. I understand network television is still funded by the ad sales, but it was a little ridiculous how much air time Wal-Mart was given.
It was a little disheartening to see how many people went into this wanting to “hate watch” it. They want to be able to make the snarkiest tweet of the night and think they are better than a light and fluffy musical. This live tweeting culture brings out the cynicism in everyone, which when you clash it with an earnest piece of material, of course they will not like it. What I noticed, though, is the further the show went along, the less amount of sarcastic tweets were sent out. There was a shift, and people were realizing they were actually enjoying themselves watching it.
“Peter Pan Live!” may not have put on a terrific piece of musical theater, but for the material they had, they put on a very entertaining show. Allison Williams got to show off her talent to a wider audience beyond those who watch “Girls“, and it would have been worth it for that. NBC’s next live musical is reportedly The Music Man. This is the first of the three shows I truly think is great, so I hope they do it right.
