CityLife

Mary Poppins sets up home at Palace

Spectacular: Mary Poppins

YOU might almost say that Lisa O’Hare, who plays the most famous nanny in the world in Cameron Mackintosh’s lavish production of Mary Poppins – at the Palace Theatre until March 7 – has grown up with the show.

After training as a ballet dancer and performing in dance-oriented shows at Sadler’s Wells and at the Royal Opera House, Lancaster-born Lisa first joined the original London production of Mary Poppins as the understudy for the original Mary, Laura Michelle Kelly. 

She left the production in July 2005 only to return a little over a year later in November 2006, assuming the title role on a full time basis. 

She replaced Scarlett Strallen, making her the third actress to hold the West End title role. 

Eliza Doolittle

So her starring role in the current tour is her third time in the role.

But it’s not as if it’s the only notable role she’s had in those past few years. 

Manchester theatre-goers may well have seen her as the alternate Eliza Doolittle, sharing the role with Amy Nuttall, in the UK Tour of Cameron Mackintosh’s production of My Fair Lady which opened here at the Palace. 

She reprised that role in a US tour, starring alongside Christopher Cazenove as Henry Higgins, and recently starred as the title role in Gigi at London’s Regents Park Open Air Theatre.

Iconic role

“It’s just a great fun show to do,” she tells me of Poppins. “I think the audience have been really enjoying it on this tour and Manchester is really the local date on the tour for me, so that makes it special. 

“My sister lives here and the rest of my family are just an hour’s drive away. 

“Having done it before and knowing what’s entailed actually doesn’t really take much of the pressure off, though, especially as it’s such an iconic role. 

“Everybody expects certain things but it isn’t just like the film. There are quite a lot of things that are different but I think that by about 10 minutes into the show, people have forgotten about the film and are just enjoying watching the show for what it is.”

Run like crazy

In the original London production, she was, she remembers, “actually the second understudy, the person who only goes on if both the lead and the first understudy are off. So it’s very rare for that person to go on as the lead. 

“However, I did go on, for a two-show day and it was absolutely fantastic. 

“It was a last-minute thing and I was standing in the post office when I got a call an hour before the show saying, ‘you’re on’ and I had to run like crazy to the theatre. 

“It was an extremely scary experience but I had the time of my life that day. It was such a blur and luckily, one of the people who had written the music was in and saw me. 

Fireball of energy

“That’s how I got my audition for My Fair Lady. I am so fond of My Fair Lady and Eliza really does have a place in my heart because it was the first part I ever really did.

“Apart from Mary Poppins, nothing else comes near it, but they are so different because she is so emotional, a little fireball of energy, whereas Mary Poppins is the exact opposite. She’s supernatural and you’re always guessing about what she is feeling or thinking.

“It’s been nice to play two totally contracting characters that are equally challenging.

“It’s important to enjoy the part of Mary because she is such a stern character, but she needs to have a sense of joy about her. It’s such fun to play a supernatural character.

“When else do you get someone who can pull hatstands, plants and mirrors out of a carpet bag? She’s a kindred spirit, an angel with human qualities.

Kindred spirit

“I like to think that at the end of every journey she makes with a family, she gets the choice to either stay and remain human or to fly away and become a kindred spirit again so that she can help another family. 

“Maybe one day she will retire and go and stay with Bert because it is kind of sad when she leaves him at the end.”

Without giving away too much about the show – except to say that it’s fabulous fun, full of wonder and surprises so it’s no wonder that it’s been such a huge hit everywhere it’s been seen – there is an especially ‘wow!’ scene towards the end. 

It looks as if it would be terrifying for any actress, but Lisa says not.

“You know what? I can see how it’s exciting for the audience and how you might think it has to feel like this big, scary thing, but I don’t think about it any more than any other part of the show – and it feels like it goes by in a flash.

“This show has been on such an amazing journey and it has been fantastic to be a part of it through all the different stages. The spectacle and fantastic numbers are still there, but I think that because the set is so much more intimate than it was in the West End.

“And because it moves so beautifully, makes it so much more endearing, more of a family story, to watch.

"It has come a long way. Every time we get to a new city, though, it is different, so wait and see Manchester!”

Mary Poppins is at the Palace Theatre from until Friday, March 7, 2009. £12.50 - £42.50. Call 0844 847 8000.