When most people think of musicals, they imagine going to the theater for a night of live entertainment. With NBC’s “Peter Pan Live!”, which aired Thursday, Dec. 4, the network aimed to bring this experience into the homes of viewers. Modeled after last December’s successful “The Sound of Music Live!”, “Peter Pan Live!” may not have fully given viewers the musical experience, but still remained fun and entertaining.

Mostly everyone knows the story of Peter Pan—in essence, there is a boy (Peter Pan) who never wants to grow up. In “Peter Pan Live!”, Allison Williams (“Girls”) starred as Peter Pan. Taylor Louderman (“Bring It On: The Musical” on Broadway) played Wendy Darling, the girl who Peter Pan finds and takes to his home in Neverland. Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter”), perhaps the most talked about of the cast, portrayed Captain Hook. The production had other professional actors, but many, like Jake Lucas and John Allyn who played John and Michael Darling, were found through open auditions.

As a production, “Peter Pan Live!” had both ups and downs. It started out slow, but once Peter came to visit Wendy, Williams’ energetic performance brought the show to life. Williams and Louderman played off each other very well, and had nice overall chemistry. Because of this, most of Peter and Wendy’s interactions seemed natural and fun.

In playing Peter, Williams conveyed the happy-go-lucky and carefree personality the character was written with. Although she is a woman and not a young boy (traditionally, women are cast as Peter due to labor laws during the initial Broadway production), Williams still gave somewhat of an illusion of masculinity through characteristics from her appearance to her movement.

In his performance as Captain Hook, Walken brought experience more than anything else. He acted with an incredible stage presence, and still brought it in his tap dancing during the production. One downside of Walken’s performance, though, was his interactions with Williams. The animosity Captain Hook feels toward Peter seemed somewhat muted in the production, even during song.

Speaking of which, the music of the production, in general, was pretty good. “Peter Pan Live!” kept many of the songs from the Broadway musical, and most notably added “Vengeance,” “Only Pretend” and “A World Without Peter” and reworked “Ugg-a-Wugg” into “True Blood Brothers.” Of these, “Vengeance” was probably best, as it showed Captain Hook’s personality perfectly and sounded like it had been in the musical all along. “Only Pretend” was an OK, slower song, and “True Blood Brothers” turned into more of a dance number than a song. (Despite this, the dancing was phenomenal). “A World Without Peter” did not live up to its potential as an entertaining stab at Peter from Captain Hook, though, partially due to Walken and Williams’ interaction.

The standards from the original production were also well executed. “Never Never Land” and “I Won’t Grow Up” both stood out as solid performances where Williams brought her enthusiasm. Additionally, the resurrection of “When I Went Home” (which was included in the original musical but did not survive before it opened on Broadway) added a solemn side to when Wendy and the Lost Boys left Peter. The best number, of course, was “I’m Flying,” which not only embodied the spirit of entire musical but also gave Williams yet another chance to showcase her best quality—her unmatched happiness as Peter.

As mentioned earlier, the production’s choreography was both entertaining and well performed. Many of the numbers involved intricate motion, from balancing teacups on heads to a 20-person sword fight. The dancing in particular, mainly by the Lost Boys and Tiger Lily’s Indian tribe, also conveyed the emotion of the music while keeping up with the complex actions.

The show, however, did fall short technically. Both Tinkerbell and Peter’s shadow are electronic, which seemed awkward when in conjunction with a live performance. Peter’s shadows were not even in sync for part of “I Gotta Crow.” During the flying scenes, the ropes holding up the actors could easily be seen as well, which took focus away from the flight choreography and kept Williams’ already amazing performance of “I’m Flying” from reaching new heights (no pun intended). A few of the scenes cut to commercials rather quickly as well, which was not only awkward but also confusing. Nonetheless, the show still had great camera work and a fantastic (though prerecorded) score.

As a musical, “Peter Pan Live!” may not have been everything it should. Despite this, good acting, singing and choreography made it entertaining for all. While it could only be live once, there is potential for an encore airing (which happened last year with “The Sound of Music Live!”), in which case you should definitely tune in for a fun, albeit not always up-to-par, performance of a classic musical. On top of that, if you’re interested in more live broadcast musicals, “The Music Man Live!” is reportedly in the works for 2015.