While on a holiday in Florida, Bernstein undertook the commission to write incidental music for a new production of J.M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, in which Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff were to play Peter and Captain Hook. Bernstein's enthusiasm for the project was apparent when he delivered not only the various dances and segments of mood music he had been commissioned to write, but both music and lyrics for five songs and two pirates' choruses. When the production opened on April 24, 1950, Bernstein was in Europe, and his colleague Marc Blitzstein was asked to step in to cope with last-minute problems. There were, in fact, a number of them, as Blitzstein wrote in a letter to Bernstein a week before the opening night: "Your casual throwaway phrase: 'If you run into any trouble on lyrics (in Peter Pan), consult Marc - he's my deputy' - has borne all kinds of fruit; raw, ripe, rotten." One song was cut, and other lyrics were rewritten by Blitzstein, for which he was paid from Bernstein's royalties. "Don't be upset about the small amount: $200. I really didn't do that much," he told Bernstein; "just about enough to disturb you."

Peter Pan nevertheless earned Bernstein over twelve thousand dollars in its year-long run and was a solid success, running for 321 performances at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. Critical acclaim was virtually unanimous. "Leonard Bernstein has taken time off from serious work to write a melodic, colorful and dramatic score that is not afraid to be simple in spirit," wrote Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times. Bernstein's score was simple but effective, with a clarity that accommodated the limited singing skills of the cast, but also mirrored the simple directness and innocence of the children in Peter Pan. The songs include "Who Am I?" "My House," and "Peter, Peter," along with the male choruses, "Pirate Song" and "Plank Round." Far from frivolous, these numbers are, in fact, modest steps along the road leading to his opera Trouble in Tahiti.







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