‘Peter Pan Live!’: Early reaction mostly positive for Allison Williams, cast
As we’ve said over the past few weeks, we have the utmost sympathy for everyone who is associated with NBC’s latest venture into live musicals: “Peter Pan Live!“. Why? It has nothing to do with the overall quality of the show; instead, it is really all about just having to be so heavily scrutinized.
The reality here is that it is extremely hard at this given point in time to do anything without internet backlash, and this is ripe for opportunities for people online to make fun of it. You have an actress from a polarizing show in Allison Williams playing Pan, and then you have Christopher Walken playing what may be one of the most camp versions of Captain Hook to ever walk the face of the earth.
Then, there is all of the other crazy stuff, from the musical numbers to the overall themes of the show.
With all of this being said, the early take on the musical (which is technically still on as we write this) is that it is still somewhat cheesy, but far and away better than “The Sound of Music Live!” in terms of quality. Also, the crew did a remarkable job, from the TInker Bell effects to the 360 camera views of many of the individual sets. It already looks like they have created a real world here, and not so much just a stage set that could be used for Broadway.
The real future of this format on NBC is going to depend largely on the ratings tomorrow. We don’t expect the same numbers, but anything close to them probably guarantees that another music is made.
What is your take on “Peter Pan Live!” as a musical? Share with a comment below, and head over here to get some other TV updates on all we cover courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)
L L Bennett
December 5, 2014 @ 4:35 am
I mostly liked it–but Walken’s Hook did not impress. I liked the music in the old musical and am pondering the new stuff. What was Wendy doing on the plank??? Thought the sets were good but the wires for the flying segments were quite visible.