Short of Divine playing the role of Peter, we aren’t sure Peter Pan could get any gayer than last night’s live telecast. Unfortunately, that ended up being our favorite aspect of the very long, very tedious show.
Need proof?
Well for starters, Allison Williams makes a very cute lesbian.
Christopher Walken’s eyebrows deserve their own credit. Each of them.
And how about that line he repeats with all the pirates — “A hook for every boy and a boy on every hook.” Calm down, sailors.
And these pirates look a bit too elated doing a side shuffle.
Then there’s Tiger Lilly and her band of native twinks.
Edit: band of flexible native twinks. Where are the female natives, by the way?
And for even more smooth faces and pouty lips, there’s the lost boys.
There’s gotta be a porn out there that starts like this.
Yeah, there definitely is.
They’re even into light bondage.
And then there’s the native twinks vs. the lost boy twinks, which really just speaks for itself.
So basically…
cosmicme
Every negative review points out the “gayness” of this performance suggesting being light in the loafers is still a welcomed negative attack. Why not just break down the performances fairly. Williams was horrid as peter. Reluctant and clumsy when flying around. Lacked any appeal as the stage peter pan who for some stupid reason has always been played by a woman. As for mr. walken it didn’t feel like he was acting gay. It felt more like he was giving the middle finger to the whole situation and got loaded on weed and stumbled, mumbled, and phoned in a ridiculous performance that would have had any basic elementary school version of this musical yanking him off stage. The girl who played Wendy was far from light in the loafers. She was that one actor so enamored with the idea of being live on TV she couldn’t stop glaring. The only reason the lost boys and the tribe looked odd was casting the wrong age group. They apparently bused in a frat house of wannabe’s who were suckered into being on tv and would have done anything as instructed being oblivious to what they were a part of. The real truth is this was an embarrassment of a production that mocked the most extreme typical stereo type. You have to wonder what the director was really thinking with all of this. At least there was a sweet quality that prevailed with sound of music. This version was like the obnoxious drunk uncle who is never invited to any of the family gatherings.
inbama
@cosmicme: Actually, the criticism is for camping it up instead of doing what’s right by the material. It’s a lazy approach.
The insult is that there is actual great gay talent out there – Nathan Lane would’ve made a terrific Captain Hook.
Zodinsbrother
@inbama: From a UK perspective this looks normal. The Peter Pan pantomine with a female Peter and all the fluff is mainstream family entertainment here. If anything, this looks a bit mild.
Here is Jimmy Osmand playing Hook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUjZbEkxKpU
Tony G
I don’t agree with all the negative comments. The comments about how “gay” it was. What else would you do with this material? It’s campy by design and I’m fine with that.
It had a lot stuff going on and happening live, I think they did a fine job.
I think Allison Williams was good. As for her “flying” that has more to with the people handling the wires.
Overall, given how creaky this musical is…it was better than anyone had any right to expect them it be.
I’ll be curious to see how many DVD Walmart sells.
Alan down in Florida
I fell asleep about 2 hours in. I thought the choreography was flatfooted, Christopher Walken was phoning it in and don’t get me started on the multiple appearances of the harness wires both while they were on the ground and when they were flying. The production lost me early on when less than 2 minutes after saying no one ever touches him Peter Pan is flying with someone grasping both of his hands. So much for the teleplay making sense.
vonlmo
I only tuned in to catch the Newsies alumni but didn’t stay w it as it was far too tired overall.
mz.sam
Peter’s Pan was neither gay or campy…just a bloody bore. A MAJOR FAIL!
queerwhizkid
@inbama: i wanta be a boy ona hook
stranded
I thought Williams was ok, but flat. You can tell she was really trying to do good but she lacked charisma and conviction. All you have to do is search Mary Martin’s version on youtube and you can see how Williams was acting like Peter Pan but unable to embodying the character as Martin had. Even within this production you can compare Williams and Walken’s performance with that of the chorus of pirates, natives and lost boys, you can really see the lack of conviction which probably develops after years of experience. I don’t know why the producers of these live versions are banking all their money on women leads with no musical Broadway experience. A high profile name will get them viewership, but wouldn’t you rather focus on making a good show and introducing the public to an amazing musical performer? Its just a bit offensive to say this show was gay simply because its a musical with mostly male performers.