Cathy Rigby has gotta crow about the VHS and DVD release of “Peter Pan” just two days after its broadcast on the A&E network Oct. 8.
The former Olympic gymnast made her Broadway debut as Peter in the musical’s 35th anniversary production in 1991. In 1997, she toured with the show to more than 50 cities across the country before returning to Broadway last year, where the revival received its second Tony nomination in the same decade.
For this production, filmed live before an audience, Rigby reprised her signature stage role for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. With her boundless energy, athleticism and aerial acrobatics, she long ago emerged from the estimable shadows cast by the previous Peters, Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan.
She said she never was daunted about comparisons. “In gymnastics, you’re always being judged,” Rigby observed in a phone interview. “You realize at some point that the only thing you have control of is how you (yourself) do. I didn’t see a production of `Peter Pan’ until I saw Sandy do it on Broadway. I loved it. In the beginning, I found there were many things I could use from Sandy that the audience would respond to. Then you just have to kind of make it your own.”
Rigby has “lovely, wonderful thoughts” about portraying the boy who holds fast to his childhood. “I was full of the dickens as a child,” she said. “I was very mischievous. I would pick fights with little boys because it was a challenge. I was always climbing up on top of the refrigerator and bookshelves and jumping off the roof. Then I put that energy toward gymnastics. It was a passion. It was fabulous, but with the expectations and going for the gold and all of that, you shut down a little bit emotionally to handle the pressure. Most children are the opposite. They wear their heart on their sleeve and say what they think. So to be able — as Peter — to be that spontaneous was terrific. If nothing else, it was fabulous therapy.”
Any production of “Peter Pan” rises and falls, in part, on its flying scenes. Rigby took this ageless musical to new heights (except, she recalled, for one disastrous rehearsal when because of a stagehand’s miscue, she barely cleared the orchestra and landed in the 17th row of seats). She compared flying above an audience for the first time to her first childhood bounces on the new trampoline at her local youth center. “It was as if I found my place,” she said. “The same thing with the flying. I never thought about the danger, but the incredible freedom of it. To look down and see people responding to it was incredibly exciting.”
She got a more profound perspective when she looked into the eyes of a wheelchair-bound girl who, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, had arranged to be flown. “We put the harness on her and she started to cry a little bit,” Rigby said. “I asked if she was sure she wanted to fly, and she shook her head yes. All of a sudden she was up in the air. I told her (as Peter), `OK, think lovely, wonderful thoughts’ and threw this fairy dust on her. She said, `Look, I’m flying.’ It was all I could do to hold on to my own composure.”
Rigby enjoyed observing other backstage visitors who were outfitted in the harness. “No matter how frightened they are at first,” she said with a laugh, “once they’re in the air, they don’t want to come down.”
“Peter Pan” retails for $20 on VHS and $30 on DVD. Among the DVD’s special features are a behind-the-scenes segment and a sing-along feature to accompany the songs “I’m Flying,” “I Won’t Grow Up” and “I Gotta Crow.”
