I Won't Grow Up & Neverland... Nostalgia and Peter Pan with Mary Martin

My parents woke me up to watch this in March 1955.

I hope you will indulge some nostalgia.

I woke up this morning with Neverland playing in my head, so I looked for a copy, and found one.

My parents woke me up to watch this on our black and white television in March 1955. In 6 weeks I would turn 5 years old.

Years later, in my early twenties, I still had the record… This is where my morning memories took me.

In my early ski bum days in Aspen Colorado, we used to rent the local ice rink for games of broomball. Everyone would take psychedelics.

We had access to the sound system. I remember one evening when a roommate of mine, Maureen, put on my Peter Pan LP to accompany our game. It's playing in my head… That scene… That game… right now.

The musical Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, was first performed on Broadway on October 20, 1954, at the Winter Garden Theatre. This production was a musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie's original 1904 play and his 1911 novelization, Peter and Wendy. The show was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and featured music by Moose Charlap and Jule Styne, with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. It ran for a limited engagement of 152 performances and closed on February 26, 195517.

The production became an iconic cultural event when it was broadcast live on NBC's Producers' Showcase on March 7, 1955. This televised performance attracted an audience of 65 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched TV events of its time. The success of this broadcast elevated the musical's popularity and solidified Mary Martin's portrayal of Peter Pan as legendary