All members of the cast repeated their roles from the original Broadway play.
Mary Martin and Jean Arthur, close friends, discussed between them selves their individual interest in performing the role of Peter Pan in James M. Barrie's play "Peter Pan." Jean Arthur beat Mary Martin in performing the role. The Shubert Organization, Producers Peter Lawreunce and R. L. Stevens produced the James M. Barrie play revival with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein, at the Imperial Theatre (4/24/1950-9/30/1950), St. James Theatre (10/02/1950-1/27/1951) with total performances of 321. The music arranged by Trude Rittman; Music orchestrated by Hershy Kay. The production was staged by John Burrell; Associate Director by Wendy Toye; Scenic Design and lighting design by Ralph Alswang; Costume design by Motley. Flying supervisor Peter Foy. Hollywood's Universal Studios feature film horror picture movie star, also a stage actor, Boris Karloff starred as Mr. Darling and Captain James Hook. After the success of Jean Arthur's appearance in the play revival with music, Mary Martin asked close friend and impresario of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association, Edwin Lester, to develop and produce a musical of the "Peter Pan" property. Edwin Lester assembled a creative team in 1953 to develop the musical for the Broadway stage with Mary Martin featured as Peter Pan.
Unusually for the era this was shown in full color, as a showcase for the recently introduced RCA color TV sets. Despite this the vast majority of TV sets in the US remained black and white until color started to become popular in the mid 1960s.
Shot on color film (color videotape technology did not exist until the late 1950s).
Mary Martin, in the role of Peter Pan, received a Tony for Best Performance by a leading Actress in a Musical in the 1955 Tony Awards. Cyril Ritchard won a Tony for Best Performance by a leading Actor in a Musical for his dual role as Mr. Darling and Captain James Hook. Technical Director Richard Rodda received a 1955 Tony Award for Best Stage Technician. The Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Opera founder and producer Edwin Lester acquired the American rights to adapt the J. M. Barrie's 1904 play "Peter Pan" and Barrie's own novelization of "Peter and Wendy" as a stage musical for Mary Martin. The music is by Mark Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, most of the lyrics written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Incidental music by Elmer Bernstein and Trude Rittman. Musical orchestrated by Albert Sendrey. Directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Scenic Design by Peter Larkin, Costume Design by Motley, Lighting Design by Peggy Clark. Flying Supervisor Peter Foy and Flying Effect by Joseph Kirby. Prior to opening in San Francisco's Geary Street theatre district's Curran Theatre, the production was rehearsed at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. During the San Francisco performance schedule, additional musical material was ordered by Jerome Robbins and Edwin Lester, revisions continued when the expensive musical transferred to Los Angeles in August, 1954. The show opened in a busy Broadway season, competing with such notable shows as The Boy Friend, Fanny, Silk Stockings, and Damn Yankees. However, while still in Los Angeles, a deal was made for the musical to be broadcast on the NBC's Color Television network 90 minute anthology series "Producers' Showcase," that aired every fourth Monday, on March 7, 1955. "Peter Pan" opened on Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre on 20 October 1954, with a limited run of 152 performances, closing 26 February 1955, closed so that it could be broadcast on television, although box office continued to be strong throughout the Broadway run. The aim of the "Producers' Showcase" was to broadcast expensive color spectaculars to promote the new color television system developed by NBC's parent company RCA. On Marh 7, 1955, NBC presented "Peter Pan" live as part of "Producer's Showcase" as the first full-length Broadway production on color TV. The television show attracted a then-record viewing audience of 65 million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television broadcast program. Marry Martin won an EMMY Award for the television production. So well received that the musical was re-staged live for television on 9 January 1956. Both of these broadcasts were produced live and in color, but only black-and-white kine-scope recordings survive.The telecast special followed with rebroadcasts in 1956, and in 1960 with the same stars, production costumes and scenery. The re-staged 1960 telecast had new children in the cast because the original kids had grown to old for their parts. The musical has enjoyed several revivals onstage in 1979, 1990, 1998. Following the successful 1955/56 "Peter Pan" telecast, the NBC Color network mounted a television production of Irving Berlin's Broadway stage musical "Annie Get Your Gun," directed by Vincent J. Donehue, starring Mary Martin as Annie Oakley and John Raitt as Frank Butler, William O'Neal as William Frederick 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. Telecast live as part of the "Producer's Showcase," in color from the NBC Burbank Studios #2 and #4, with an audience, on 27 November 1957.