Friday, February 07, 2014
Peter Pan in 2014: Notes For NBC’s Creative Team
HowlRound: While NBC’s continued commitment to a live broadcast is to be commended, I also believe some thoughtful reflection is necessary to improve the quality of its future programming. Frankly, I do not wish to dwell on the (hopefully) obvious lessons learned from The Sound of Music— All of us have looked back on our first brave attempts and crafted our own “to-do-better” lists, and I assume NBC is doing that very thing. Nevertheless, might I suggest a few considerations as NBC moves forward with Peter Pan in 2014?
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4 comments:
Now, I absolutely adore "Peter Pan" (as in, I had an unhealthy obsession with it as a young child). This being said, I do not want NBC to ruin it. They took something else that I love ("The Sound of Music") and made it lack the magical quality it could have. I fear that they will do the same to "Peter Pan". While I'm sure there were some people who very much enjoyed "The Sound of Music" experience that NBC created, as someone who grew up on the Julie Andrews movie, it had no way of living up that. I have seen a lot of versions of Peter Pan (animated movie, live action movies, plays, etc.) but because of what NBC did with one movie I grew up on, I fear for what they will do to another.
Translating theater to other mediums has never been something I've been gung-ho about. However, NBC has enough money and power to make Peter Pan into something spectacular. The most important part that this article brings up, in my opinion, is the importance of accurate casting. In Sound of Music, while it was necessary to have a headliner like Carrie Underwood, I felt that she wasn't right for the part. Now that NBC has captured the attention of both theater and television audiences, it has the ability to cast lesser known actors who fit the role better than Ms. Underwood did. The reason that this part of the production is so crucial is because these actors need to sing, dance, act, fly, AND be good on camera. You need a special breed of actor to do that. They're out there. Go out and find them, NBC.
I think this article gives good advice about how NBC should learn from the sound of music experience. I think one particularly important note is about casting. They bring up two good points, that i would like to elaborate on. They said how there are many people who could play the roles, and they need to focus on that this time. Yes they can get someone well known to sell the show, but it cant just be a celebrity for celebrity sake again. I will also be interested to see if they cast a male or female actor in this role because ive seen it done both ways. To comment on the second point, by doing a live version, I think they have to be particularly careful not to offend anyone with some of the kind of wrote in racism that comes with peter pan.
Peter Pan concerns me as being NBC's next musical. The show is very iconic and has challenges that are created by the Disney animated version. There is an element to the story that makes it really hard to tell in any medium that isn't animation. I might be saying this just because I'm used to the animated version. Either way, it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
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