This first television showing of the Mary Martin "Peter Pan" became the highest rated TV production seen up to that time. It aired live a mere ten days after it had closed on Broadway. It was so successful that it was re-broadcast live with most of the same cast only ten months later. Four years after that, it was videotaped with most of the same cast and presented on TV again in December 1960. The 1960 version has since been rebroadcast several times and released on video cassette and DVD. The DVD has since gone out of print and is only available at a hugely expensive price.
The Mary Martin version of 'Peter Pan' opened at the Winter Garden Theater on October 20, 1954 and ran for 152 performances.
Cyril Ritchard won the 1955 Tony Award (New York City) for Supporting or Features Actor in a Musical for "Peter Pan" as Captain Hook an recreated the role in this televised production.
Mary Martin won the 1955 Tony Award (New York City) for Supporting or Features Actress in a Musical for "Peter Pan" for the title role that she recreated in this filmed production.
The original Broadway production of "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" by J.M. Barrie opened at the Empire Theater on November 6, 1905, ran for 223 performances, closed on May 20, 1906 and starred Maude Adams, a nineteenth and early twentieth century stage actress who never made a film, and who is not to be confused with Maud Adams, a former model who starred in the James Bond film Octopussy (1983), with Roger Moore.