I can’t say Peter Pan Live totally soars, but I will say that it seems like an improvement over last year’s The Sound of Music (all ten minutes of that that I watched). I finished “Peter Pan Live,” so it’s definitely better in that regard. All in all, I thought it was enjoyable, cheesy, and enjoyably cheesy, and I bet most families that watched it did as well.
Whereas TSOM’s Carrie Underwood was widely panned by, well, pretty much everyone last year, I think Allison Williams did a great job. The difficulty of her performance can’t be understated: she had to play male, she had to play young, she had to do it while singing and dancing and flying (tricky wirework), she had to seem engaged but not overly so (the legend of Peter Pan originally had him with a rare form of what would today be considered autism, which is why he hates being touched and doesn’t connect well with others, especially authority figures), and she had to do it all while not receiving a lot of help from her most notable co-star: Christopher Walken.
I’m a huge Walken fan, but the dude looked half asleep out there. First, he has that weird kabuki makeup that made him look like he was trying for an Asian look, and his even stranger accent made Captain Hook seem like he was raised in Russia, London, Brooklyn, and Mars. Walken didn’t commit to his spoken lines at all, and his voice kept giving out during the song and dance numbers, when the score drowned him out during spots. [Broadway vet Christian Borle played Smee—and Wendy’s dad—and that only highlighted how noncommittal Walken was.] But he pulled it together towards the end, finally finding some energy during his last song and farewell scene.
Anyway, it’s Christmas (almost), and only a real Grinch could totally pan something this well-intentioned and fun for all ages. It reminds me of the spectacles the networks used to regularly put on for families, but that they hardly bother with anymore. Grade: B+