'Children's Theatre Updates 'Peter Pan's' Lost Boys to Girl Gang, NBC to Premiere Thursday

In these progressive times, concerns over old productions — like the 100-year-old classic "Peter Pan" — are subject to revision. With a live production on NBC this Thursday, Dec. 4, starring Christopher Walken, Music Theatre International is considering updating the play's undertones of post-colonialism to a more politically correct version. Playwright and choreographer Larissa FastHorse felt it fit to produce a counterpoint to the famous "Lost Boys," which some feel is a crude assimilation of early Native American anxieties. Thus, she created a new gang of powerful and diverse girls, per (Minneapolis) "Star Tribune," now known as "The Pounce." Interesting, indeed. But the new idea became so immediately accepted by Music Theatre International, a licensing company that controls the performance rights to "Peter Pan," that it has been adopted as the new standard for any future staging.