Remembrances Of Things Past

By Gerald Clarke

PETER PAN by James M. Barrie

Music by Mark Charlap and

Jule Styne; lyrics by Carolyn Leigh,

Betty Comden and Adolph Green

In the '80s, Broadway may become known as Memory Lane. Over this season and next, playgoers will have the privilege of seeing a rich selection of the great musicals of the past: Oklahoma!, The Most Happy Fella, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Camelot. The musical version of Peter Pan, which first played on Broadway in 1954, does not belong in that exalted company. But it is a rare treat nonetheless, and this stylish, spirited revival ought to set a standard for all those that follow.

Mary Martin was the first Peter Pan to sing and dance in a full-scale musical. She repeated the role several times on television, and for millions the part will always be hers. But for those seeing the play for the first time, Sandy Duncan will probably seem equally inevitable as the boy who refuses to grow up. Underneath her male costume, Martin was clearly a woman; the difference is not so apparent with Duncan, who is, in fact, closer to James M. Barrie's original conception. Her Peter is androgynous, part boy, part tomboy. As she plays the character, sexual distinctions are irrelevant, an unwanted intrusion by the grownup world. Duncan's performance seems so right that it is easy to forget how wrong it could be, and the show's success is chiefly hers.

Following tradition, George Rose plays both the father of the three children Peter spirits away and the comical Captain Hook, the archvillain of Neverland and "the swiniest swine in the world." But Rose breaks with tradition by being good in half his assignment and not quite so good in the other: he is a fine father but a wayward villain. He has apparently sought to create the same broad, almost campy mannerisms Cyril Ritchard had in the original version, but, perhaps through bad direction, he has overshot his mark. As a result, his Cap tain Hook is almost effeminate, modeled less on Ritchard and more on Hermione Gingold. It is perhaps a too original interpretation.

In almost all other respects, however, this newest Peter Pan is faultless, and trib utes have to be paid both to those who labored on this production and to those who worked on the original. Perhaps special credit should go, however, to Peter Wolf, who designed three of the most sumptuous sets to be seen on Broadway, and to Peter and Garry Foy, who supervised the flying sequences. Under their direction, flying seems not only effortless, but fun. In one spectacular moment at the end, Duncan even soars over the balcony, an extra delight for those who stay for the curtain calls.

With all of that, there is doubtless enough praise left over for Barrie himself, who delivered Peter Pan 75 years ago. His little tale for children is as thin as a spider web, but it has proved to be just as strong. --Gerald Clarke

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