[2] Producer Edwin Lester, founder and director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, acquired the American rights to adapt Peter Pan as a play with music for actress Mary Martin.

The show was a box office success, but critics expected it to have more musical numbers that featured Mary Martin, so director Jerome Robbins hired lyricists Comden and Green and composer Jule Styne to add more songs, including "Never Never Land", "Distant Melody" and several other numbers, turning the show into a full-scale musical.

[5] The show opened on Broadway on October 20, 1954 at the Winter Garden Theatre for a planned limited run of 152 performances.

[6] The busy 1954 Broadway season also included The Boy Friend, Fanny, Silk Stockings and Damn Yankees.

While still in tryouts, a deal was made for Peter Pan to be broadcast on the NBC anthology series Producers' Showcase on March 7, 1955, which ensured that it was a financial success despite the limited run.

The revised score and Tony Award-winning performances by Martin and Cyril Ritchard, as Captain Hook, made the musical a critical success, and tickets sold out throughout the Broadway run.

[8] In 1954, Fred Coe, production manager for NBC in New York, began work on Producers' Showcase, a 90-minute anthology series that aired every fourth Monday for three seasons.

[9] On March 7, 1955, NBC presented Peter Pan live as part of Producers' Showcase (with nearly all of the show's original cast) as the first full-length Broadway production on color TV.

Peter Pan was restaged on December 8, 1960,[14] this time in a 100-minute version rather than 90 minutes (not counting the commercials),[15] and with a slightly different cast because the original children had outgrown their roles.

Producers' Showcase had long since gone off the air, so the 1960 production was intended as a "stand alone" special instead of an episode of an anthology series.

[16] Peter Foy re-created the signature flying sequences he had staged for the 1954 Broadway production and the two Producers' Showcase broadcasts.

Eliminated completely was a dance that Liza (the Darling family maid) and the animals of Neverland perform to an orchestral version of Never Never Land.

Also eliminated was Mary Martin's curtain speech at the end thanking NBC for making the program possible, which, in the 1960, 1963, and 1966 telecasts led directly into the closing credits.

In 2000, A&E presented a TV production of the Broadway show, starring Cathy Rigby, recorded in front of a live audience.

[22] The show was revived in 1979 on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, produced by Nancy and Ronnie Horowitz, starring Sandy Duncan and George Rose, and ran for 554 performances.

Both engagements starred former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby as Peter; the first co-starred Stephen Hanan and the second J. K. Simmons.

[20] The Cathy Rigby production was brought to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in November 2019 as the first Broadway show to be produced in the kingdom.

The show was well received and included the lead of Peter Pan being portrayed by a woman with fans lining up after for autographs and photos.

This production, directed by Lonny Price, features several major alterations, changing the musical's Victorian London setting to modern day America.

The song, which was also featured in the 2014 NBC television broadcast, was written for the original 1954 production, but was cut before the Broadway premiere at the request of Mary Martin.

The previous week, while the children slept, Nana saw a boy in the room who flew out of the window before she could catch him, leaving behind his shadow, which Mrs.

Peter is thrilled when his shadow is re-attached ("I've Gotta Crow") and tells her that he lives in Neverland ("Never Never Land") with the Lost Boys.

Peter sprinkles the children with fairy dust and tells them to "think lovely thoughts" ("I'm Flying – Reprise").

The children follow Peter, but Michael goes back when the maid, Liza, comes into the room, giving her some of his fairy dust and inviting her to come to Neverland with them.

In later Broadway revivals, the Liza scene is replaced with Peter and the Darling children flying over London on their way to Neverland.

After the pirates leave for their ship, Liza arrives and dances with the animals of Neverland while Peter keeps watch outside the house.

One day in the forest, after Peter leads the Boys in their anthem ("I Won't Grow Up"), they almost run into the pirates, who have captured Tiger Lily and tie her to a tree.

Wendy asks Peter to sing the Boys a lullaby ("Distant Melody") based on the classic fairy tale Cinderella.

Tinker Bell awakens Peter, tells him of the ambush, and warns him about the poison, but he waves her off as he prepares for a rescue.

("Finale: Never Never Land [Reprise]") Original Broadway production[29] The Darling family The Lost Boys The Indians The Pirates The Animals of the Neverland