Peter Pans, past and present! Allison Williams received invaluable advice from her Peter Pan predecessors, Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby McCoy, on the Today show, Thursday, Oct. 30.
“Can’t believe I got to spend my morning with Cathy Rigby and Sandy Duncan on the Today Show,” Williams, 26, wrote on Instagram alongside a fun snap with the stars. “I asked them as many questions as we had time for. These women (and Mary Martin) inspire me to no end. What an unbelievable honor. #PeterPanLive #OurShadow.”
Duncan, 68, first played the role on Broadway in 1979, and offered advice to her successor. “She’s got her way of doing it, and she’s smart and she’s surrounded by smart people,” the Tony-nominated Duncan said.
“We told her to go do it in a theater somewhere for a month, just for her own thrill of having done the role, and do it with an audience with kids.” (The role was originated by Mary Martin over six decades ago in the original 1954 Broadway production.)
Former Olympic gymnast Rigby, 61, meanwhile, who played Pan in more than 3,000 performances over the course of 40 plus years beginning in 1974, attempted to reason why the character is traditionally played by women. “I think it’s more of an androgynous, nonsexual, sort of spirit. We don’t know the answer,” she admitted.
“It was a real 180 for me and a total blast,” Williams joked of playing the boy who wouldn’t grow up. As for flying? “It’s an unbelievable feeling,” the actress gushed.
Williams will star as Pan opposite Christopher Walken‘s Captain Hook on NBC’s Peter Pan Live, Dec. 4.
