"Irene Mecchi has her phone at the ready, in case a call comes in from “Peter Pan Live!” rehearsals and she’s called upon to do a quick rewrite. The San Francisco native, a graduate of St. Rose Academy and UC Berkeley who splits time between her hometown and Los Angeles, needs to be on alert with NBC’s Dec. 4 broadcast only 10 days away. “It’s phenomenal,” says Mecchi, whose credits include “The Lion King” (stage and screen), “Brave” and the upcoming “Strange Magic.” “It’s rehearsed like a Broadway musical. It’s a three-ring circus. We have an extraordinary director, Rob Ashford, who has many pieces of the puzzle working at the same time; an extraordinary stage manager that keeps everyone on time; and a level of professionalism that I hope audiences will so respect.” If ever a project was a dream come true, “Peter Pan Live!” is it for Mecchi. At one time, she considered becoming a stage director or character actor. It was local actor Joy Carlin who suggested Mecchi consider writing when she studied with her at ACT. Long before that, Mecchi was crazy about musical theater, ever since her mother — to whom she’s dedicating “Peter Pan Live!” — took her and her sister to see a touring production of “The Sound of Music” when she was a child. “I was bitten by the musical theater bug. Not as a performer, I just enjoyed it. So I would read the Pink section every Sunday looking for shows that were coming to town,” she says. After the ratings success last year of the live broadcast of “The Sound of Music,” NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, a musical theater buff, decided to make an annual event of airing musical classics live. Mecchi first worked up a draft of “Peter Pan” with executive producers Craig Zadon and Neil Meron, with whom she’d previously collaborated on a 1999 television adaptation of “Annie,” back in 2006. At the time, no network was interested. But now the time is right." - Anne Bouey

"“Casting was interesting,” says Mecchi. “My sense is that they would approach an actor and say, 'Do you like 'Peter Pan?’ 'I love it!’ 'You get to sing!’ 'Yes.’ 'You get to dance!’ 'Yes.’ 'You get to fly!’ 'Yes!’ 'And it’s live.’ 'No!’ " - Anne Bouey

"“What you try to do is revisit and see some areas that might need opening up in the story without entangling it. ... This is something where you knew the core story was something you didn’t want to tinker with, but we had the blessing of all the composers and lyricists who worked on it over time to try to find some new song moments. And that was part of the fun. “My goal was to respect the characters, hopefully find a few moments where I could put Mecchi wit and couple it with Barrie wit, and then work with our music team. I would spot a moment in the story and saying, 'Wouldn’t be interesting here if Wendy was actually able to sing about how she felt for Peter?’” Mecchi is someone who lives by the philosophy of “take the job, because you never know where it will lead to.” She was a television writer who had taken a job writing a short on recycling for Disney when she was asked to do a polish on an animated feature called “King of the Jungle,” which led to a full-blown screenwriting assignment on what became “The Lion King.” That was her breakthrough, leading eventually to this date with “Peter Pan.” - Anne Bouey

You should have kept her math book. That autograph might be worth something. :-P - Jessie

Haha, Jessie. ;-P - Anne Bouey