Peter Pan refuses to grow up. He was at ArtsWest recently in Peter and the Starcatcher; Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently did a production of For Peter Pan On Her 70th Birthday; at the Paramount Theatre, they will be presenting the theatrical event, Finding Neverland, telling the story behind the story of Peter Pan.
Created originally in the form of a 1904 play and, later, in a 1911 novel, let’s take a look at Peter Pan through the ages, shall we?
Here is a silent movie from 1924 starring Betty Bronson and Ernest Torrence. J.M. Barrie, Pan’s creator, wrote a screenplay for the movie, but Paramount used the original stage script instead.
There’s also the famous 1953 Disney version. It was entered into the Cannes Film Festival.
The Steven Spielberg-directed Hook was the 4th highest-grossing movie of 1991.
Return to Never Land was an authorized sequel to the original Disney movie.
A Damion Dietz movie transported the story to 21st-century Los Angeles.
The 2015 movie Pan, starring Hugh Jackman, did not do well at the box office.
Peter Pan was also turned into a musical stage adaptation in 1954. It was directed by the legendary Jerome Robbins.
Here’s Mary Martin performing as Peter Pan in 1960.
And were you aware there is an opera?