After four decades and 3000+ performances, Cathy Rigby has turned in her fairy dust and retired from Peter Panning. She's done it all over the world and retired before…but it sure looks like this time, she ain't coming back to the role. Last Sunday in Boston, she gave her final performance.
I saw her in it many times and thought she was terrific. Having grown up with the Mary Martin Peter Pan on TV, I should probably reject the notion of anyone else as The Boy Who Never Grew Up. Nope. First time I saw someone else play Peter, it was Sandy Duncan and I thought she was as good as Mary Martin if not better. Then I saw Ms. Rigby and I liked her better than either of them. I'm sorry I won't be able to see her do it again. Here's a little video ad for the production you now cannot see…
And here's some video of her curtain speech at the last performance. If ever a performer deserved this moment…