New Musical in Manhattan

Peter Pan (by James M. Barrie; music by Mark Charlap and Jule Styne; lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and Betty Comden and Adolph Green) was bound to become a musical in time--and doubtless in time for Mary Martin to play Peter. She looks as boyish as can be expected of any grownup of the opposite sex. She is hard to beat at singing, she can dance, she can duel with Captain Hook; and when she flies through the air, she races and soars and dips like some Peter Pan-American.

As a Broadway musical, Barrie's classic is chiefly memorable for Jerome Robbins' dances. Robbins is more genuinely imaginative than Barrie, and not the least bit cloying; and with his tearing Indians and tangoing pirates and stylishly prancing animals, he has contrived a succession of gay, unsugared romps. As a kind of grandly baroque Captain Hook, Cyril Ritchard demonstrates delightfully that gusto can be laced with style.

If Peter Pan is not all pure gain as a musical, one reason is the indifferent quality of the music, which has nothing better than the tinkling prettiness of Tender Shepherd or the straightforward lilt of I've Got to Crow. And with the original Barrie story very much cut into but seldom seeming cut, Peter Pan comes off a bit more of a long show than a fully sustained entertainment. Barrie and Broadway are not quite an ideal couple. But their marriage has been celebrated with truly festive splash and animation.

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