Peter and Hook: A History and a Half

Before Mary Martin and Cyrill Ritchard took to

the boards (and planks!) with Peter Pan,

a plethora of other talented folks took their turns as this

classic duo.

Above, Jean Arthur and (below) Boris Karloff

in the last Broadway production of the PLAY, 1950.

It had 5 songs by Leonard Bernstein,

although initially he wanted to write a whole score for it.

Didn't happen. 

 (Photo: Lucas-Monroe)

 (Photo: Lucas-Monroe)

 Boris is one scary Hook,

if you ask me!

 (Photo: Lucas-Monroe)

The stuff of nightmares.

These lost boys are probably still in therapy.

Come 1954,

the light-hearted musical version launched,

on Broadway and on live TV!
The initial score by Moose Charlap and Carolyn Leigh
was buoyed up with additional
Jule Styne and Comden and Green goodies.

(Photo: CBS)

(Photo: CBS)

 I'm not sure if Director Jerome Robbins is teaching Mary,

or it's the other way around!

 Cyril played his "Hook" campy and fun.

At least he never scared ME!

(Photo: CBS/gyfcat)

 Maude Adams played Peter

(avec the pipes)

in the play's Broadway debut, 1905.

By the time the run was over (1915),

Maude was 43 years old.

(Photo by Otto Sarony Co.)

 1951, and Veronica Lake took on the role

in a national touring company of the play.

 (Photo: mcny.org)

 Flash WAY Back: In a 1924 silent film,

Betty Bronson played the dashing Peter.

(Photo: agefotostock)

 Another Peter from the 1920s, 

Eva Le Gallienne.

Critics said, 

"she wears the limit of bare leg!" 

(Photo: Unknown)

 Hayley Mills took a turn at Peter in 1966,

in a West End revival,

and instead of wearing a wig,

had her long blonde locks sheared off!

(Photo: flickr)

 The first actress to portray Peter 

was Nina Boucicault, above,

in a London production, 1904! 

 Mia Farrow did a 1976 made-for-television musical version,

with all new music by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

Danny Kaye played Captain Hook (below).

Did anybody actually see it?

 (Photos: NBC)

 

(Photo: Davidson Brothers)

....then Pauline Chase was another West End Pan.  

She began as a Lost Boy in the 1904 production,

and advanced to the top role in 1906.

 (Pssst...is she actually painting that dog?)

 (Photo: Unknown)

 Sandy Duncan took to the high wire

in a Broadway version from 1979.

I saw this production, before it opened,

and it was taking about 30 minutes to change sets!

I assume they got faster at it by opening night. :)

(Photo: NBC News)

 And now a few more Captains!

That 1924 silent film

had Ernest Torrence as the Captain.

(Photo: Unknown)

 In Hook, starring Robin Williams as Peter,

Dustin Hoffman was a memorable Captain.

(Photo: Unknown)

 Hans Conried (above)

provided the inspiration and the voice of 

Walt Disney's animated Captain Hook.

Illustrator Frank Thomas used Hans' live action performances, in costume,

"as a springboard".

(Photo: Disney)

 (Photo: NBCNY)

Kelsey Grammer played Hook

in Broadway's Finding Neverland, 2015.

 And from "Peter Pan Live!", an NBC televised production,

Christopher Walken's version.

“It’s a classic piece and my Hook is pretty much like me.”

 (Photo: Patrick Randak/NBC)

Playlist for Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019: Gotta eatcher spinach!

I think I've totally lost it...I'm now playing Broadway vegetable songs.

But out here in "the sticks", one gets pretty surrounded with vegetables at this time of the year. At every turn, a farm market overwhelmed! A field overturned! And when you're on a bike, you don't just experience this for 4 seconds; nope, on 2 wheels it's more like 4 minutes or 40. Of pumpkins, cabbage, zucchini, peaches...the sights (the smells!), the damn-I-wish-I-knew-how-to-can emotions. (Not really. I like the idea of "canning", not the roll-your-sleeves-up-and-start-peeling reality!) So I guess it's rather "nature"-al for all that harvesting to eke into a playlist! (Don't worry, it's only 4 songs.)

We'll also have some "Vanilla Ice Cream" (She Loves Me), take a flight to "Never Never Land" (do I have to say...Peter Pan?), and let Tommy Tune "Seesaw" with us for 75 choruses of  Cy Coleman. (BTW, ever notice how I never play Barnum? I will never play Barnum. It's Coleman at a circus, and he is off the rails. Sort of like Wild Cat, without Lucy, but still...)(And, no I don't like "Colors of My Life." Just go away.) Plus Bernadette x 3!

So join me, already. We'll pick a peck, or a bushel, of Broadway...and eeether or iiiither way, have some fun! :)


It's Not Where You Start (Tommy Tune, Seesaw)
I Won't Grow Up (Mary Martin, Peter Pan)
Captain Hook's Waltz (Cyril Ritchard, Peter Pan)
Never Never Land (Mary Martin, Peter Pan)
Sounds While Selling (Ensemble, She Loves Me)
Tonight At 8 (Zachary Levi, She Loves Me)
Try Me (Nicholas Barasch, She Loves Me)
Vanilla Ice Cream (Laura Benanti, She Loves Me)
I Resolve (Jane Krakowski, She Loves Me)
Plant A Radish (Hugh Larson, The Fantasticks)
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rodgers, Shall We
      Dance)
You've Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby (Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Jack Haley,
      Poor Little Rich Girl)
I Say It's Spinach, And To Hell With It (Meredith Patterson, Jeffry
      Denman, Face The Music)
Yer My Friend Ain'tcha? (Thelma Ritter, Cameron Prud'homme, New Girl
      In Town)
Could've Been A Ring (Pert Kelton, Cecil Kelloway, Greenwillow)
Do You Love Me? (Zero Mostel, Maria Karnilova, Fiddler On The Roof)
You Made Me Love You (Patsy Kelly, George S. Irving, Irene)
The Beguine (Tamara Long, Steve Elmore, Dames At Sea)
Live Before We Die (Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, The Addams Family)
Moon River (Audra McDonald)
There Is No Music (Michael Feinstein)
So Many People (Jessica Molaskey, Make Believe)
Crossword Puzzle (Faith Prince, Total Faith)
Second Hand Rose (Fanny Brice)
Second Chance (Daniel McDonald, Karen Ziemba, Steel Pier)
Secondary Characters (Susan Blackwell, Heidi Blickenstaff, [title of show])
I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle (Marin Mazzie, Bullets Over Broadway)
What A Guy (Bernadette Peters, The Goodbye Girl)
Everybody Loves Louie (Bernadette Peters, Sunday In The Park With
      George)
Raining In My Heart (Bernadette Peters, Dames At Sea)
Doin' The Production Code (Ensemble, A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The
      Ukraine)
Chapter 54, Number 1909 (Tommy Tune, Ken Howard, Michele Lee, Seesaw)

Eddie Lives!

Eddie Hodges was the very first Winthrop Paroo

in the very first production of The Music Man,

in which he got to sing "Gary, Indiana"

(there he is above, lateral lisping with Robert Preston, on Broadway;

Ron Howard would take over for the movie version.)

Eddie was born Samuel Hodges in 1947,

in Hattiesburg, Mississippi,

but moved with his family to NYC in 1952,

where he began scooping up roles.

He made his professional debut with The Music Man in 1957.

In 1959, Eddie made his film debut with Frank Sinatra

in A Hole In The Head,

singing another great song,

"High Hopes."

In 1960,

he played opposite ex-boxer Archie Moore

in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,

also starring Tony Randall, Andy Devine, and Buster Keaton.

A young Eddie (in a great sweater vest!)

with astronaut John Glenn.

As a teenager,

Eddie appeared in smaller roles in the films

Advise and Consent, Summer Magic (below with Hayley Mills)

and The Happiest Millionaire,

guested on several television shows

 (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bonanza, Gunsmoke),

and he began recording!

In 1961, he had a hit with "I'm Going To Knock On Your Door".

He later wrote songs with various collaborators

and established his own music publishing company.

Flash forward to today:

Eddie now lives back in his home state of Mississippi,

having retired from his most recent career

as a mental health counselor.

He is presently 72 years old. 

 

Jump on the Band Wagon!

 The Band Wagon

opened in June of 1931,

directed by George S. Kaufman,

music by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz (below),

and starring Adele and Frederick Austerlitz,

better known as Adele and Fred Astaire.

 Band Wagon was a well-reviewed revue!

Somebody somewhere called it

 "arguably the greatest of the 'little' revues of the 1930s".

The cast:

Tilly Losch, Fred and Adele, Frank Morgan, and Helen Broderick.

 Adele, Fred, Tilly, Frank, and Helen (above),

and "Hoops" (yes, that was the name of one of the show's songs!),

with Adele and Fred, below.

Perhaps this song was shelved for the one

Arthur and Howard wrote for the movie:

"Triplets".

 Fred and Adele began their "act" in Vaudeville,

when Adele was 9 years old and Fred, 6!

They danced on 2 wooden wedding cakes,

dressed as bride and groom.

Twelve years later, they debuted in their first Broadway show,

Over The Top,

in which they were reviewed as "one of the prettiest features of the show".

They would perform together for 27 years.

Adele was the outgoing one, Fred the worrier.

(Adele's nickname for her brother was Moaning Minnie!)

Adele would  leave show business

just one year after The Band Wagon

and marry Lord Charles Cavendish. 

She was 36 when she retired,

and was never persuaded to return to the stage,

even when Lord Cavendish passed away and 

she returned to live in the states.

 In 1953,

the movie version of The Band Wagon was released.

Now it had a book! 

And even more songs by Arthur and Howard.

It starred (above) Oscar Levant, Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan,

Fred, and Nanette Fabray.

 They kept "I Love Luisa" from the original staged "Wagon",

but kicked "Sweet Music" (below, with Nanette and Oscar)

off the jetty.

Fred was 54 now (32 for the Broadway musical),

and unlike Funny Face (28 for the staged version, 58 for the movie)

he was almost a plausible leading man opposite Cyd.

 From The Will Roger's Follies,

which opened in 1991,

starring Keith Carradine (surrounded above) 

and Dee Hoty...

music Cy Coleman, lyrics Comden and Green.

 Best Musical of 1991,

plus Tony Awards for direction and choreography (Tommy Tune),

score, costumes and lighting.

 Above, a photo from Playbill of "our leads."

(Trivia: I remember Chock Full Of Nuts coffee shops in NYC!

Great date nut bread/cream cheese sandwiches!)

 Dee, above, who would star in another Cy Coleman show

just one year later...City Of Angels.

 What a line up for The Boy Friend,

a Sandy Wilson show

(a send up of the musicals of the 20s and 30s)

imported from the West End.

When it opened on Broadway in 1954,

Julie Andrews (her debut) played Polly.

That's she above on the right,

along with Millicent Martin, Stella Claire, and (I believe) Ann Wakefield.

 Julie received a Theatre World Award 

for her debut,

but had to leave the production 3 months early

to begin rehearsals for My Fair Lady.

 The show inspired a 1971 Ken Russell movie

starring Twiggy and Glenda Jackson!