The star-studded production of the timeless classic, which Charles Frohman staged on Christmas Day 1905 at the Criterion Theatre in New York, has always been a spectacular showcase for the acting prowess of the greatest female actors, from Ethel Barrymore to Helen Hayes. The main character, Alice, returns from India to England with her husband and struggles to acclimatize to the house and kids she left behind. Amy, her intelligent and creative daughter, misinterprets her mother's flirtatious comments to a close family friend and thinks she is planning a meeting with him. Amy resolves to offer herself as a sacrifice in a great gesture and first meets "the lover." Alice is shocked to discover her daughter's glove at the friend's apartment, and now both mother and daughter are in danger while the poor friend is hopelessly lost. Alice's husband is also. But they manage to resolve the incorrect relationship without hurting Amy's delicate imagination. The main themes of the novel—children believing they are smarter than their elders and adults having to learn how to use their life experience to be effective parents—remain relevant today, despite the fact that the story is very much a period piece.
Scottish author Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, is most known for creating Peter Pan. He was also a playwright. He was raised and educated in Scotland before relocating to London, where he penned a number of well-received books and plays. There, he met the Llewelyn Davies brothers, who later served as the inspiration for his works Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play," about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. The story of a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens was first included in Barrie's 1902 adult novel The Little White Bird. Despite his ongoing success as a writer, Peter Pan eclipsed all of his earlier works and is credited with making the name Wendy well-known. After the deaths of the Davies boys' parents, Barrie adopted them clandestinely. George V created Barrie a baronet on June 14, 1913, and in the New Year's Honours of 1922, he was inducted into the Order of Merit.
