Christopher Walken Hooks “Peter Pan”

Playing Captain Hook in NBC’s live staging of the classic musical seems a great fit for a latent comic actor who won’t grow up.

Steven Spielberg's underrated 1991 fantasy film "Hook" lifted the Peter Pan story to new heights, starting with the revisionist title. Sure, we're fascinated by flying boys who won't grow up – but seafaring villains with development issues of their own wield an even sharper lure.

That's why the inspired casting of Christopher Walken as Captain Hook in NBC's "Peter Pan Live!" Thursday (December 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT) offers a draw well beyond the ambitious airing of a Broadway-level high-wire act without a net, from a pirate ship or otherwise. Walken arrives with the promise of chewing up the scenery with the voraciousness of the crocodile than chomped off Hook's left hand. You should never smile at a crocodile, but it’s okay to laugh at Christopher Walken.

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Walken, at first glance, doesn’t scream out as a song and dance man. But as he’s shown on “Saturday Night Live,” he can carry a tune and pull off a credible soft shoe, most memorably performing “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” a couple decades back. The star of “The Deerhunter” also emerged as an unlikely TV comedian with his cries for “more cowbell.” His live stints, even in the name of humor, land with an air of, if not danger, then a portent of the odd and unexpected.

The Walken of “SNL” appears made for Neverland. Judging from his Hook get-up, the 71-year-old actor wouldn’t be out of place with Johnny Depp and Keith Richards at a Sparrow family reunion, whether in the Caribbean or on a Hollywood lot. But unlike the movies, there are no second takes when mounting a live TV musical.

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That’s a challenge for the whole “Peter Pan Live!” cast, especially Allison Williams, who is setting out to prove she’s more than the one-note wannabe singer Marnie on "Girls." Her performance as the airborne title character will be measured against Mary Martin’s legendary 1960 TV turn in the role. Williams’ bigger test, though, might be standing out amid Walken and other more seasoned cast mates.

Big-stage musical neophyte Carrie Underwood found that out last year in NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!” when working hard to hold her own against veteran Broadway talent like Christian Borle and Laura Benanti. Borle, who played proto-Hook Black Stache on stage in “Peter and the Starcatcher,” is back Thursday as Hook’s left-hand man, Smee.

Peter Pan might have top billing, but it’s Hook’s show for the grabbing – a sign of a classic that’s as only as good as its villain is bad. Check out a preview as Williams, Walken and the “Peter Pan Live!” creative team prepare to take flight.

Jere Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multimedia NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.

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