CityLife

Mary Poppins

IT took superstar producer Cameron Mackintosh 30 years or more to finally realise his dream of staging a live production of Mary Poppins.

So it was unlikely that the man behind such theatrical powerhouses as Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera and Miss Saigon was going to fluff his opportunity when it finally came to it. 

Of course, he hasn’t. The creative team assembled for this magical show, including choreography by the acclaimed Matthew Bourne and book by Oscar-winning Julian Fellowes, with the multi-award-winning Richard Eyre directing, is as genuinely outstanding as the show itself

The phrase “entertainment for the whole family” is greatly over-used but completely justified in this case.

The Disney film, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, is much-loved. Except, it turns out, by the novel’s author, PL Travers, who especially hated the animated sequences.

Marvellous mix

Mackintosh eventually talked her around by promising that the stage show would incorporate more from her book.

He also convinced her that the film is so famous that she needed to accept that the songs and some of the scenarios would be part of the stage musical as well. So the show is a marvellous mix of the familiar and the new.

The Sherman Brothers’ well-known songs such as A Spoonful Of Sugar, Chim Chim Cher-ee, and Supercali- fragilisticexpialidocious are present and correct.

They are supplemented by newer tunes by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, such as the memorable Practically Perfect, which are not inferior to the better-known ditties.

Sparkling dance moves

This is especially so when the music is played by a full 16-piece pit band and sung with a precision that matches Bourne’s characteristically sparkling dance moves.

Equally impressive are the set and costume design by National Theatre and RSC alumnus Bob Crowley, a crucial part of a show that revels in its own theatricality.

Most essential to the magic of the show, though, are the central performances. Here again Mary Poppins is, as the song would have it. “practically perfect”. 

Lancashire-born Lisa O’Hare, who many Manchester theatre-goers may remember from her sharing (with Amy Nuttall) of the Eliza Doolittle role in last year’s My Fair Lady, brings a lovely sense of mischief and mystery to the role of the strange but endearing nanny-from-who-knows-where.

Touchingly lovelorn

And Daniel Crossley’s touchingly lovelorn Bert banishes memories of the notoriously naff “Cockney” accent affected by Van Dyke in the film.

Meanwhile Martin Ball and Louise Bowden firmly anchor the show in day-to-day family reality as George and Winifred Banks, parents of the problem children Jane and Michael (played throughout the run by various pairs of local children, including last night’s Isabella Sedgwick and William Pearce. Although it is not a show for very young children, it is a story that’s full of the joy and wonder of being young at heart.

It’s a magical and lovely show, complete with a thrilling late scene with Mary, the uncanny nanny, that really does send the audience out into the night with their spirits soaring.

Mary Poppins is at the Palace Theatre from until Friday, March 7, 2009. £12.50 - £42.50. Call 0844 847 2295.
 

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