Whether you loved it or hated it, NBC’s The Sound of Music Live was a big success. After 18.5 million people watched the three-hour event in December, Bob Greenblatt promised that similar shows were on their way and, on Sunday, the network announced its next musical telecast: a new version James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, with The Sound of Music Live’s Craig Zadan and Neil Meron set to produce. (With a December 4, 2014 air date, casting for the project has been put “on a fast track.”) This isn’t the first time NBC has done a live broadcast of the classic story: Sixty-five million viewers tuned in for a production starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook in 1955. While it won’t be possible to recreate those exact numbers nearly 60 years later, NBC can probably still count on a big turnout.
