Thursday, June 23, 2005

Peter Pan promotion notes

Bill Lloyd, producer of Peter Pan at the Players, has sent me the promotion notes concerning that recording after I bugged him yet again, the poor man.

A unique opportunity to hear Barrie’s stage version of Peter Pan with its original 1905 Broadway score. Specially recorded by an all-star cast in the Edwardian splendour of the Players Club in New York. Performers include Rosemary Harris (Superman 2), her daughter Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice), Hayley Mills (Pollyanna), Michael Allinson (Higgins in My Fair Lady) and Matthew Blumm. Plus a group of crack Broadway musicians directed by John McGlinn.

This unique project originated with Broadway conductor and musical theatre archivist John McGlinn who discovered the original score and band parts for the stage version of Peter Pan languishing in boxes in New York Public Library. He arranged them for a quintet of musicians and then set to adapting the play to produce a chamber Peter Pan as it would have been heard back in 1905. To celebrate the book’s centenary, Stage & Screen staged a public reading at the Players Club in New York to put this music in its proper context. An all-star cast assembled itself as if by magic – both Rosemary Harris and Hayley Mills had played Peter in years gone by – and their affection and enthusiasm for the book and the historic environment of New York’s club for actors, The Players, ensured a remarkable line-up for this one-off Christmas entertainment.

Narrator: Rosemary Harris
Mrs Darling: Jennifer Ehle
Peter: Matthew Blumm
Hook: Michael Allinson
Wendy: Hayley Mills

Other parts played by members of the cast.

"Public reading". "One-off". Eheu.

Still no luck in finding an accessible recording, though Mr Lloyd has said that both Ms Ehle and Ms Harris have copies. I encourage you to e-mail Stage and Screen at stageandscreen@bbc.co.uk to prod them into at least archiving the recording at the National Sound Archive or something. You could also try prodding the NSA as well: try the Drama curator at nsa-drama@bl.uk.

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