After hearing the sound of ratings dominance for its “The Sound of Music Live” special this past December, NBC was surely going to broadcast another live musical in 2014.
The only surprise of today’s announcement, therefore, is the fact that NBC has the willpower to wait until next December to broadcast the special.
NBC’s Robert Greenblatt announced Sunday that “Peter Pan Live,” the network’s second live musical staging, will air on December 4, 2014.
“We’re very pleased to be underway on ‘Peter Pan’ as our next live holiday musical for the whole family,” said Greenblatt. “We were all delighted to see how ‘The Sound of Music Live!’ struck such a chord in December and brought nearly 19 million people to the live telecast plus another several million viewers over the weekend. In the hopes that lightning strikes twice, we think we’ve landed on another great Broadway musical — which ironically also starred Mary Martin — that is a timeless classic for all audiences, young and old, who just never want to grow up.”
Following the musical’s short run on Broadway, NBC famously televised a live version of “Peter Pan” in 1955. After drawing 65 million viewers for that special, NBC broadcast additional live “Peter Pan” shows in 1956 and 1960.
NBC has not yet cast the live “Peter Pan” musical.