Peter Pan review, 1906/07

[andrew]

Just came across a fascinating review for the 1906/07 London revival of Peter Pan in the Sphere: "'The vogue of Peter Pan is really extraordinary. The first night it was produced on this its fourth-year season it was received with almost hysterical enthusiasm by a house which knew every line of the script and every turn of stage management. ... 'The other theatre entertainments for children - Alice in Wonderland not excepted - have never attracted such a huge audience as Peter Pan. This is rather astonishing, for unlike Alice it has curiously grown-up elements in it which deserve the attention of some serious student of psychology although nobody has treated it in that light. Yet I believe it is just those elements - some of them like a sad, far-off voice - that attract grown-ups, and it is just these moments which Miss Pauline Chase with all her charm does not capture. Thus, for example, when standing on the rock amid the rising seas, she exclaims "To die would be a great adventure," she says it as a child from a copybook not as one who feels it - as Melisande would have felt it. 'Miss [Nina] Boucicault with her fine wistfulness is the true Peter.... "   For the rest, visit: http://members.tripod.com/~FootlightNotes/AA02.html