The Playbill Vault loves to transport theatre fans into theatre history. Since our launch, we've had hundreds of digitized opening night Playbills available for you to look at from the comfort of your own home.
In honor of NBC's anticipated broadcast of the musical version of Peter Pan, Playbill is offering fans of the original 1954 Broadway production an exclusive surprise: We have digitized the entire opening night Playbill from cover to cover!
Now you can take a trip back to the Winter Garden Theatre in 1954, where Mary Martin took to the skies with Wendy, Michael and John Darling. Every ad, every article, every single page of the Playbill has been prepared for you to flip through.
These documents are a fun time capsule. For instance, you'll learn that playing along with Peter Pan on Broadway in 1954 was Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, in which Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut. You'll see that the theatregoing women of 1954 were informed that they were living in the "year of the coat" (in an article titled "To the Ladies"). You'll find out where New Yorkers went for an "after-theatre rendezvous," and lots lots more.
Another fun fact: The original Playbill credited Jaye Rubanoff as the "voice of tinkerbell," even though that actually only involved playing the Celeste!
Read the full 1954 Playbill for Peter Pan here.
Let us know at [email protected] what other vintage Playbills you'd like to see get the cover-to-cover treatment.