Peter Land

Born Peter Oliver White in Taihape, he is the third child of Dr Allan Neil White, appointed Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to medicine and the community in the New Zealand 2007 New Year Honours,{{cite web|url=http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/new-zealand-honours-list-2/ |title=New Zealand Honours List » The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners |publisher=Rnzcgp.org.nz |date=10 September 2009 |accessdate=29 July 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729183102/http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/new-zealand-honours-list-2/ |archivedate=29 July 2014 }} and Molly Louise Copeland, whose maiden name provided Land with his last name. Land was educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School, Victoria University of Wellington (graduating from the Drama Department) and Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, from where he graduated with a Diploma in Acting in 1975.{{cite web|title=Graduate|url=https://www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz/graduate|access-date=9 August 2021|website=www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz}} Land achieved notable stage success after moving to England in October 1977.

His West End musical debut was as Freddy in My Fair Lady in 1979–1980 at the

Adelphi Theatre.[https://theatricalia.com/play/47m/my-fair-lady/production/b82 My Fair Lady]

theatricalia.com, retrieved 15, March 2018 This was followed by seasons at the Royal National Theatre in Life of Galileo with Sir Michael Gambon and the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Winter's Tale with Patrick Stewart, Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1982) and All's Well That Ends Well with Dame Peggy Ashcroft (1982). [https://theatricalia.com/person/52h/peter-land "Peter Land Credits"] theatricalia.com, retrieved 15 March 2018

Equally at home in musicals with roles such as Cliff in Cabaret, Andre in The Phantom of the Opera, Snodgrass in Pickwick, Savory in One Touch of Venus[http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/08/08/lon8_ed2_.php Review of the 2001 London production] and in 2007 as Captain Hook "brilliantly played with a flamboyant, nervous energy and drolly self-guying swagger" in a new adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.{{cite web|last=Taylor |first=Paul |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/peter-pan-kings-head-theatre-london-429865.html?pageToolsFontSize=200% |title=Peter Pan, King's Head Theatre, London – Reviews – Theatre & Dance |work=The Independent |date=27 December 2006 |accessdate=29 July 2014}} In this production, he sang the first stage performance of "Captain Hook's Soliloquy", composed by Leonard Bernstein in 1950 and given its world premiere in concert by baritone Lawrence Tibbett.

He first appeared on British television in the Secret Army series {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GQ23P3jgvc |title=Part 01 The Hostage 002 |publisher=YouTube |date=25 February 2009 |accessdate=29 July 2014}} as Erich Devouglaar, a Flemish youth destined for the Eastern Front, while for CBS in 1985, he appeared as Mr. Brent, a 'dream broker', in a season 1 episode of The Twilight Zone, called Wish Bank.

In June 2008 Land appeared as René Auberjonois's brother Beralde in Molière's The Imaginary Invalid, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. directed by Keith Baxter.[http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/events/the-imaginary-invalid-07-08/ The Imaginary Invalid] shakespearetheatre.org, retrieved 16 March 2018[http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/artsfun/8352.html ]{{dead link|date=July 2014}}

In 2010/11 Land was back at The King's Head Theatre (renamed London's Little Opera House) debuting as The Bonze in OperaUpClose's radical reinterpretation of Puccini's Madam Butterfly directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher.

He appeared in Now or Never, his one-man cabaret show directed by Gillian Lynne, dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Canterbury earthquake in New Zealand in London at the King's

Head Theatre in 2011.[https://www.broadwayworld.com/uk-regional/article/NOW-OR-NEVER-Dedicated-As-Fundraiser-For-Christchurch-Earthquake-20110409 "NOW OR NEVER Dedicated As Fundraiser For Christchurch Earthquake, 4/10"] broadwayworld.com, 10 April 2011 An updated version ran at New York's Off-Broadway York Theatre in February 2012.Gans, Andrew. [http://www.playbill.com/article/peter-lands-now-or-never-plays-the-york-theatre-company-beginning-feb-12-gillian-lynne-directs-com-187348# "Peter Land's Now or Never Plays the York Theatre Company Beginning Feb. 12; Gillian Lynne Directs"] Playbill, 12 February 2012{{cite web|url=http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/2590977/peter-land-now-or-never |title=Live Music | New York Music Events & Concerts | Time Out New York |publisher=Newyork.timeout.com |date= |accessdate=29 July 2014}}

In 2013 Land played a "leanly rapacious capitalist" in Jerry Herman's Dear World in the West End at the Charing Cross Theatre. The musical starring Betty Buckley was directed and choreographed by Gillian Lynne.{{cite news|first=Michael |last=Billington |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/feb/14/dear-world-review |title=Dear World – review | Stage |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 14 February 2013|accessdate=29 July 2014}}

He appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Ruthless! as Sylvia St. Croix in 2015.Gans, Andrew. [http://www.playbill.com/article/actor-collapses-onstage-at-ruthless-the-musical-com-355252# "Actor Collapses Onstage at 'Ruthless! The Musical'"] Playbill, 30 July 2015

Land married director and choreographer Gillian Lynne in 1980.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard-married-in-the-morning/148847596/ |title=Married in the morning |newspaper=Evening Standard |publication-place=London |page=20 |date=15 May 1980 |access-date=6 June 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0484362|name=Peter Land}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070917065847/http://www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz/success_stories/PeterLand.html Peter Land Toi Whakaari Success Story]
• {{YouTube|Ug0nHxzSmGk|Peter Land in Now or Never}}

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Category:1953 births

Category:Living people

Category:English male stage actors

Category:English male musical theatre actors

Category:New Zealand male stage actors

Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members

Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni

Category:Toi Whakaari alumni

Category:People educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School

Category:People from Taihape