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Peter Pan Live (NBC)


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nqYMuiGS14

 

It looks kind of cheap. It seems like they spent their money getting a lot of stuff and not necessarily on high quality stuff. That is, there's a big cast and lots of props and set pieces and costumes but it's looking a little cheap. Not feeling the Tiger Lily. Christopher Walken looks like he couldn't care less. Wendy is rather old. Alison's voice is a little quiet in the trailer. Not unpleasant but not up to Broadway standards. If they don't really get the set up down I think there's a chance the music might drown her out. 

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This will be a glorious hate-watch for me. Only made better by the fact that Dame Allison Williams has come down from her flying harness to lecture us about moral character:

 

People watched The Sound of Music wanting it to fail, and I know that people will watch Peter Pan that same way, but I would hope that the strong among them would watch thinking lovely and wonderful thoughts.

http://time.com/3596602/peter-pan-allison-williams-christopher-walken/

 

(but Christopher Walken can do no wrong in my books; hopefully he'll stab her with his pirate sword)

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The preview looks HORRIBLE! This looks to be a trainwreck. Allison Williams seems so wooden and flat, is she saving her energy for the actual show? She needs a Red Bull or something.

Too funny. Maybe she thought she was cast as Pinocchio.

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People watched The Sound of Music wanting it to fail, and I know that people will watch Peter Pan that same way, but I would hope that the strong among them would watch thinking lovely and wonderful thoughts.

Oh lord. I can't with that. I'm not a big hate-watcher. I generally watch everything hoping it'll be good because I don't want to waste my time on things that are terrible. Even when I assume something will be objectively bad like all the Lifetime movies I find myself watching, I'm hoping it'll be entertaining and campy and fun. But even though I want to be supportive and encouraging if you've done a bad job, you should expect to get called on it. It's not my responsibility to protect your feelings. It's your job to perform to a certain standard. Literally. That is your job. If she does a good job I'll give her her due. If her singing or performance isn't up to par, I'll call her on it. It's as simple as that.

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I've never been a Peter Pan fan and I'm not the target audience, so maybe I'm off base, but Alison Williams just seems physically wrong for the part. She's also rather awkward and stiff, which comes across even in the still shots. Maybe she'll end up being great, but I get the impression that she's going to be unpleasant to watch in this role.

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I've never been a Peter Pan fan and I'm not the target audience, so maybe I'm off base, but Alison Williams just seems physically wrong for the part. She's also rather awkward and stiff, which comes across even in the still shots. Maybe she'll end up being great, but I get the impression that she's going to be unpleasant to watch in this role.

 

It's odd - she seems to have an uncomfortable expression on her face in every shot. Perhaps it's her singular artistic (ha ha) interpretation of the character, or perhaps that harness is giving her wedgies. Apparently the score is out of her vocal comfort range, too, so that can't help. Walken will be having fun and that's all that matters (to me).

 

Here she goes again:

We learned last year [with The Sound of Music] that even if you present something that's breathtaking, some people will hate on it," Williams says. "So screw 'em. We have to enjoy it. If we do, that will make it even more fun to watch, for people with the right mind-set."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/11/18/peter-pan-live-prepares-for-takeoff/18914777/

 

I forgot the part where Carrie Underwood's performance was breathtaking but there I go with the wrong mind-set because I'm not "strong".

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Why is she being so preemptively defensive? Sound of Music got great ratings last year, that's why NBC's doing this one in the first place- it makes me think she already knows it's going to be terrible or something.

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Why is she being so preemptively defensive? Sound of Music got great ratings last year, that's why NBC's doing this one in the first place- it makes me think she already knows it's going to be terrible or something.

Either she saw the backlash from the Sound of Music within the theater community, or nBC is using her as a mouthpiece to answer critics. My guess is a combo of the two.

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I think I'd actually be looking forward to this if it was Kristen Bell. As it is, I'm just looking forward to reading the twitter comments.

Edited by cynic
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Christopher Walken will have to go a long way to compare to the greatest Captain Hook ever, the legendary Cyril Ritchard and so far what I see in the previews isn't helping much.

 

In that admittedly short clip I thought the biggest potential problem was Christopher Walken came across as Christopher Walken playing Captain Hook not Captain Hook.  Its really funny when he does that on SNL but this isn't a series of two minute skits.

 

As for Peter Pan, the flying is never going to beat Walken's Fatboy Slim video.

Edited by ParadoxLost
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I think the problem I have with Allison is that she just too tall for the role. Rigby and Martin were petit ladies. Allison looks too much like a girl, too.

I actually think she's quite masculine looking with her strong features and how gangly she is. I do agree her height is an issue though. My problem with it is that it makes her look too old and that effect is compounded because she doesn't have a particular youthful look or baby face (which wouldn't be such an issue on stage, but may be with tv close ups).

More of an issue for me though is the quality of her movement. She's not graceful. Her arms in particular seem very stiff, especially in the wire work. Strangely, even her facial expressions seem stiff. The clips of her staring straight into the camera are awkward to say the least.

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Well, it is set in England so maybe that's why they're using English accents.  

 

Mary Martin used her normal accent when she played Peter Pan. Cathy Rigby employed a kind of faux Cockney accent.

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"Let's keep Brian Williams happy!"?

 

Wish I could do more than just one thumbs up for this.

 

Me?  I won't be watching because I'm afraid one of the flying harness tethers will snap and someone's going to go careening through a wall and screaming into the night, never to be seen again.  I doubt it'll happen, but  you never know.

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Anyone else watching the parade this morning? While they showed some commercials you'll note they kept Alison Williams in the booth with the anchors and far away from the performance. That said, the costumes looked a lot better than they did in the commercials or the promotional photos. 

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Wish I could do more than just one thumbs up for this.

Me? I won't be watching because I'm afraid one of the flying harness tethers will snap and someone's going to go careening through a wall and screaming into the night, never to be seen again. I doubt it'll happen, but you never know.

With any luck, it will be Allison Williams.

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Wish I could do more than just one thumbs up for this.

 

Me?  I won't be watching because I'm afraid one of the flying harness tethers will snap and someone's going to go careening through a wall and screaming into the night, never to be seen again.  I doubt it'll happen, but  you never know.

This is precisely why I plan on watching. (Not that I wish any of the actors harm, but the idea of some sort of high school production level snafu makes me ridiculously amused)

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I watched the special today. At first it felt very staged in the auditions. There have been documentary style behind the scenes things before and this felt much more artificial. I did like seeing how David Chase handled the kids at the audition. Kind of awkward thinking about all those crushed dreams though. As it went along I was kind of impressed with the scope of the production. There's a lot that can go wrong with this one, more so than Sound of Music and it's really risky to perform along to a prerecorded track that can't adjust to whatever's happening in the moment. The set looks interesting. I'm intrigued to hear the new songs from Amanda Green. There's a chance the rest of the cast could outsing Allison Williams and Christopher Walken still looks kind of out of it to me but I'm feeling positive.

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I thought I had read that Kristen Bell was who they wanted for the role of Pan, coming off of the Frozen popularity and the fact she is a Broadway actress, but her pregnancy put the kibosh on it.

 

I like Allison Williams, but she just doesn't fit the role at all.  I know that women usually play the role of Peter on the stage, so is that the reason why they didn't think of casting a male lead?

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I like Allison Williams, but she just doesn't fit the role at all.  I know that women usually play the role of Peter on the stage, so is that the reason why they didn't think of casting a male lead?

I know Justin Beiber was joked about but I think the intention was always to cast a woman. It's kind of a panto thing and you'd have to change the key of the songs for a guy. It's not that Allison Williams is ravishingly beautiful but right now I don't think she's doing enough to suppress her femininity. The accent doesn't help. If anything it makes her more feminine.

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It's not that Allison Williams is ravishingly beautiful but right now I don't think she's doing enough to suppress her femininity. The accent doesn't help. If anything it makes her more feminine.

 

That's what i'm picking up on as well.  It's very obvious that this Peter is a female b/c Allison has very feminine features.  I watched some of the other female Peter's on youtube, Mary Martin, Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan and they have had some boyish features in them, which Allison does not.  The accent is very distracting, it's a bad accent, like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins bad.  I know the story and all, so the fact that Wendy is supposed to be in love w/Peter is very off-putting to me.  

 

I like that NBC is going all out for these live musicals, but they need to stick w/established Broadway performers instead of singers who can't act, and actors w/o strong sounding voices.  

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I'm concerned that no one really remembers anything about Peter Pan. Maybe it's just my own lapse of memory. I can't recall any of the songs and I don't really remember much of the story except a hazy outline. Certainly not like The Sound of Music, which had so many memorable songs. I'm worried that the songs aren't very good.

Who else was considered besides Kristen Bell?

Edited by gwlisa
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I'm concerned that no one really remembers anything about Peter Pan. Maybe it's just my own lapse of memory. I can't recall any of the songs and I don't really remember much of the story except a hazy outline. Certainly not like The Sound of Music, which had so many memorable songs. I'm worried that the songs aren't very good.

Who else was considered besides Kristen Bell?

 

If they didn't consider Anna Kendrick then they're beyond nuts. But then they cast Brian Williams's Daughter so yeah, they're nuts.

 

Good point upthread about performing something this complicated to a prerecorded track. Guess they're counting on that broadcast delay to cover up any major goofs. Anyone know how much of a delay they're using?

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Last night I was looking online for info on the Mary Martin version, and found the full show on youtube. My 21 yr old niece was staying with me and she told me she as a child she practically wore out a VHS tape of the show. We watched the Tiger Lily dance which was her favorite part - and maybe a bit racist... (I wonder if they'll change any of it?)

 

The version on line was color, as was the VHS tape; I remember it in B/W, but we didn't have a color TV. Anybody know - were there 2 versions, or was it always in color and we just didn't realize it?

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We watched the Tiger Lily dance which was her favorite part - and maybe a bit racist... (I wonder if they'll change any of it?)

They cast a girl who says she's part Cherokee so it's totally cool now. *sarcasm*

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They cast a girl who says she's part Cherokee so it's totally cool now. *sarcasm*

I can't decide if it's better or worse that the new film version apparently just decided to remove references to her being an American Indian and cast Rooney Mara.

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But wouldn't Native Americans have a different name for the flower, that's what I mean. Or is her name whatever that flower would be called by her people but the Anglophones around her use the English name for it?

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Why is she being so preemptively defensive? Sound of Music got great ratings last year, that's why NBC's doing this one in the first place- it makes me think she already knows it's going to be terrible or something.

 

Maybe she's been reading this thread?

 

That might or might not be sarcasm.

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We watched the Tiger Lily dance which was her favorite part - and maybe a bit racist... (I wonder if they'll change any of it?)We watched the Tiger Lily dance which was her favorite part - and maybe a bit racist... (I wonder if they'll change any of it?)

In the article posted above they indicate that "Additionally, the second-act number "Ugg-a-Wugg," ... which shows the opposing worlds of the Indians and the Lost Boys, has been updated — due to lyrics and phrases that have been deemed offensive in recent years.

"The song, now titled "True Blood Brothers" (a lyric in the song's original version), replaces lyrics such as "ugg-a-wugg" and "gugg-a-bluck" with traditional Native American terms that have been approved by Native American consultant Jerod Tate. "Now and forever, this will hopefully be the version [in the show]," Meron said."

 

So, the answer is, thankfully, yes!

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Wow. NBC is really promoting this thing. During last night's football game, I saw a preview during almost every commercial break. Didn't know NBC was going after the Sunday Night Football demographic.

 

I laugh every time I see the pirates doing Spirit Fingers. In fact, all of the choreography is very dramatic and "Give my regards to Broadway." Lots of swinging arms and synchronized kicks. While that works on stage, it looks very strange on a TV screen. JMO.

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