Maude Adams may be the most popular and greatest actress in the history of the American stage. Born in Salt Lake City, she became one-third of the great theatrical team of Charles Frohman (producer), James M. Barrie (playwright), and Maude Adams (star). She became, in fact, the world's foremost interpreter of James M. Barrie's works, including The Little Minister, What Every Woman Knows, and Peter Pan, Barrie's most successful play and one of the most popular vehicles for women ever written--despite (or partially because) of the fact that Peter Pan, the lead role, is a boy. Barrie, indeed, created the role to be played by a woman.
And it ever has. The role was first played in London in 1904 by Nina Boucicault, niece of Dion Boucicault, one of the theatre's most respected writers and directors for many years. It was a foregone conclusion that Maude Adams would play The Boy Who Never Grew Up when the the piece was first produced in the U.S. the following year. She did, and the continued popularity of Maude Adams as Peter Pan practically forced her to periodically revive the play over the next ten years.
There is a particular charm in Peter Pan that precludes the title role from ever being played by a boy or man. The Walt Disney animated Peter Pan is doubtless the most masculine Peter ever presented. The Disney film was successful in its way. It has not, however, been nearly as popular as the productions in which women have played Peter--ranging from Jean Arthur to Marilyn Miller to Eva Le Gallienne to Mary Martin, star of the musical production which has supplanted the original stage play as one of the most popular stage vehicles of all-time--performed by Sandy Duncan, Cathy Rigby, and other actresses who have managed the fey quality demanded by the role.
Le Gallienne (like Maude Adams, a lesbian), started her own acting school for girls and ran it quite successfully for many years. As an actress, she excelled in plays like Not So Long Ago, Liliom (the play upon which the Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, Carousel, was based), The Swan, and others. (It was said that Joseph Schildkraut, who played opposite her in Liliom, flushed with the success of that play, asked Le Gallienne to marry him and that she declined, saying "Mr. Schildkraut, I would love to. But I'm a lesbian.") She founded and ran the Civic Repertory Theatre on Fourteenth Street in New York from 1916 to 1933. Among her company ere J. Edward Bromberg, Paul Leyssac, Florida Friebus, and Leona Roberts. (Friebus is remembered as the mother, Winnie, on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis), a comedy on TV from 1959 to 1963).
Jean Arthur, best remembered for her roles in Frank Capra movies of the 1930s, had considerable success when she played Peter Pan for 321 performances on Broadway in 1950. Called "boyish and engaging," she was aided by the newly composed music on Leonard Bernstein. This was the last major revival of the play before Mary Martin starred in a Broadway musical version of Peter Pan in 1956.
The musical version of Peter Pan has entirely supplanted the straight play version that preceded it in London, New York, and (thanks to touring) numerous other cities. The music was by Mark Charlap (the original California production) and Jule Styne (brought in for more songs prior to the opening on Broadway). The title, Peter Pan, was retained, and Miss Martin's own performance, coupled with the score (and, of course, the play itself) allowed the show to run for nineteen weeks at New York's Winter Garden beginning October 20, 1954)--certainly not a long run by twenty-first century standards. It proved more popular on TV, and the second annual presentation was filmed for posterity; it was annually shown years. The musical was later revived on Broadway starring Sandy Duncan and then Cathy Rigby.
It would be interesting to see another revival of Peter Pan on Broadway. Would it thrill a new audience comprised mostly of tourists, or is it, like so many other works of quality, now "dated"? As for James M. Barrie's other plays . . . One might well imagine Emily Watson (whose performance in the film, Breaking the Waves, is one of the best in the entire history of film, rivaled perhaps only by that of Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve) in the lead role of What Every Woman Knows. Who knows, indeed?
#americantheatrenetwork
Jean Arthur, best remembered for her roles in Frank Capra movies of the 1930s, had considerable success when she played Peter Pan for 321 performances on Broadway in 1950. Called "boyish and engaging," she was aided by the newly composed music on Leonard Bernstein. This was the last major revival of the play before Mary Martin starred in a Broadway musical version of Peter Pan in 1956.
The musical version of Peter Pan has entirely supplanted the straight play version that preceded it in London, New York, and (thanks to touring) numerous other cities. The music was by Mark Charlap (the original California production) and Jule Styne (brought in for more songs prior to the opening on Broadway). The title, Peter Pan, was retained, and Miss Martin's own performance, coupled with the score (and, of course, the play itself) allowed the show to run for nineteen weeks at New York's Winter Garden beginning October 20, 1954)--certainly not a long run by twenty-first century standards. It proved more popular on TV, and the second annual presentation was filmed for posterity; it was annually shown years. The musical was later revived on Broadway starring Sandy Duncan and then Cathy Rigby.
It would be interesting to see another revival of Peter Pan on Broadway. Would it thrill a new audience comprised mostly of tourists, or is it, like so many other works of quality, now "dated"? As for James M. Barrie's other plays . . . One might well imagine Emily Watson (whose performance in the film, Breaking the Waves, is one of the best in the entire history of film, rivaled perhaps only by that of Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve) in the lead role of What Every Woman Knows. Who knows, indeed?
#americantheatrenetwork
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