Variety (December 1960)

Wednwcbtyv Ifefiembe* 7, 1960 t^RDSff $S / three weeks before the cast got together, she prac¬ ticed “flying* on the stage of the Helen Hayes Theatre, just before crossing the street (on foot) for each evening’s performance of “Music” at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. And weeks before she began those exercises, she started studying the script. Much of it, of course, was familiar to her, but she was terribly afraid of inadvertently throwing in a few lines from “Music” from time to time and ruining a few stretches of tape in the process. (Surrounded, as she is, by a total of 18 children in both shows, such confusion would be understandable.) To re-orient herself to the show’s musical score (she rarely forgets a melody, but is not that infallible on lyrics), Mary listened to the show’s album once a day for several weeks, and re¬ hearsed the numbers twice-weekly with a pianist. What’s more, she continued sessions with her voice coach even after TV rehearsals began, largely because of the varied singing require¬ ments in “Music” and “Pan.” The yodeling she does in the stage musical, for example, calls for vocal action almost the reverse of the difficult rooster-like sounds in “I Gotta Crow.” Miss Martin also had her hair cut short, for the first time in three years. As someone once said, there’s nothing so irrevocable as a haircut. So, if you saw “Music” any time since October 8, you were watching a be-wigged Mary Martin, whether you realized it or not. ' If Mary spared nothing in her desire to make this the very best “Peter Pan” ever, NBC was equally eager. Mr. Ritchard, for instance, was in the midst of a successful Australian tour with “The Pleasure of His Company.^To assure our¬ selves of the pleasure of his company for a couple of weeks, we paid (in addition to his fee) a sub¬ stantial sum to compensate the tour for the hiatus and cover his transportation expenses. Whenever possible, we filled the roles with the performers who’d played them in one or both of the previous TV outings. It became almost something of a game to see how many of the original Pirates and Indians we could bring back. (Final score: Pirates, 10; Indians, 9.) OUR FIRST TWO "PETER PANS'* were done live and within the confines of a single stu¬ dio. For.the taping of this version, we used both color studios in Brooklyn as well as the Ziegfeld Theatre, giving ourselves much more latitude for scenery, lighting and camera work. In fact, we used one of the color studios solely for the “outdoor” flying sequences, which, as a result, are more sweeping than ever. There’s just about three times as much “sky” as before, and about2,000 stars rather, than just a few hundred. Talk about your heavenly sets. • The show’s songs, we need remind no "one, are glorious. The Moose Charlap-Carolyn Leigh music and lyrics (together with the added music and words of Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green) make up one of the happiest scores in show-business history. Tomorrow night’s presentation was directed by brilliant, young Vincent J. Donehue, who’s guided Miss Martin in a number of vehicles—from “Sound of Music” to her one-woman shows on TV. We feel* he’s invested this “Peter Pan” with his own brand of magic. Knowing that this one was being recorded for posterity, he was deter¬ mined to make it an attraction his grandchildren could heartily endorse for their grandchildren. We happen to think he’s done just that, so help us Tinker Bell.