✭Matinée Wednesday: Round Three…
When I was a kid, Disney’s animated version of Peter Pan was one of my favorite movies. I mean, come on, what little boy doesn’t like pirates?! As effeminate as Peter Pan may have been, you have to admire his desire to remain a kid, his rebellious nature and his charismatic leadership role of the Lost Boys. When I was a director of the Childrens’ Theatre production (for a hot second… entirely different story) in my high school’s drama club, Masquers, this was one of the shows that I was considering. Although the budget we were allotted would have never allowed us to rent the rigging system needed to get Peter and Wendy airborne.
Anyway, back to this production! The 1998 production of Peter Pan was the third (and to date, final) revival of the original 1954 production and won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Traditionally, a woman plays Peter and in this production, it was Cathy Rigby, who also played the role in the 1991 revival and won over 12 international medals for gymnastics. She was insanely talented and very natural. You could tell that she felt comfortable in the role, and above all, had fun playing the part.
From what I can remember, (which at this point, isn’t very much), this was a very fun performance. I’m sure I didn’t like the child actors (because I never did back then) and I found it annoying that Tinkerbell was only represented by a spotlight and an annoying sound cue. Despite these minor annoyances, I do remember having fun. I’ll stay tuned for the next revival… which should be any minute now.
