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They got it right! The new Broadway-style
musical pulls just the right amount of material from your memory of the Walt
Disney movie and blends it with material from the movie's source, the
stories of P. L. Travers, to create something quite different from the movie
without disappointing those who just want to see the film in live action.
Since neither Julie Andrews nor Dick Van Dyke were available to do the new
show, and neither were the age they were in 1964 anyway, the creative team
needed to find the balance between creation and re-creation. A straight
imitation would be doomed to disappoint, but so would a totally new approach starting
from scratch. For the stage, the
best known of the songs from the movie ("Chim Chim Cher-ee," "Jolly
Holliday, "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and, of course,
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious") are built into a story similar to, but
not exactly the same as, the movie's. Here there are no rides to the hunt on
merry-go-round horses, booming cannon from a nautical neighbor, or laughing
jags floating to the ceiling. Instead, there are statues that come to life
and a new character, the nanny who cared for father Banks in his childhood -
the very opposite of the nurturing Mary Poppins. While the new Mary, Ashley
Brown, won't drive Julie Andrews from your memory, she's perfectly
acceptable in the role, and the new face on Broadway, Gavin Lee, is a dancing delight in the role Dick Van Dyke had in the film. |
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Storyline: The wind is out of the east as one more nanny despairs of
controlling young Jane and Michael and quits the Banks household. Her
magical replacement is practically perfect Mary Poppins, who teaches her tiny
charges to find the joy in any job ("A Spoonful of Sugar"), takes them on
fantasy adventures ("Jolly Holliday"), and instructs them on the importance
of doing good for others ("Feed the Birds"). On a visit to their father's
office at the Bank of London they disrupt his orderly world, and for a while
it appears they may even have cost him his job. But all ends happily as Mary
flies off on the wind to her next challenge.
What a contrast between this latest Disney show
on Broadway and the last effort - Tarzan. It
isn't that this is a Cameron Macintosh co-production and the other one
wasn't, although he probably deserves a good deal of credit for the quality
of what is seen on stage. It isn't that the designer/director of Tarzan
was left behind either. He, Bob Crowley, designed the sets and the costumes
for this delectable delight just as he did for that flat disappointment. No,
the difference must be ascribed to the fact that Crowley didn't direct this
time out and that Richard Eyre did. Eyre keeps the focus on the story, with
each scene contributing to a coherent whole. Of course, a good deal of
credit must also go to Julian Fellowes' book for the musical which creates a story that has
much more heart-tugging potential than did the Disney film. The mean-spirited former nanny, played with just the right mixture
of menace and foolishness by Ruth Gottschall, is a marvelous addition to the
story. Mr. and Mrs. Banks here are Daniel Jenkins and Rebecca Luker. Jenkins
starred in Big and Big River
while Luker starred in The Music Man and The Sound of Music on
Broadway. Here, neither
gets enough to do to make much of an impression.
Half of the sixteen songs
that the Sherman brothers wrote for the movie have been retained, and they
are the half that you expect to hear, the half that would hurt the show if
they weren't there. (Only "I Love to Laugh" is missed.) The central position
of "Feed The Birds" in this story is well handled by Cass Morgan as
the bird woman, and Crowley exhibits an admirable sense of restraint with his
lovely special effect for the birds themselves. Another eight songs have been
written by the team of Stiles and Drewe, who gave us the charming score for
Honk!. Their contributions here are highly effective and some rise to the
occasion admirably. The match of melody and lyric for "Practically Perfect"
is just that, practically perfect, and "Anything Can Happen" encapsulates the
message of the evening marvelously.
Since the physical production didn't set out
to do the kind of mixed animation/live action magic that was the hallmark of
the Disney movie, it was freed from some of the requirements to compete with
memory. Crowley's set designs are centered around the Banks' home - a
massive construction that slides back to free up playing space downstage. For the heart-warming tuck-in-the-kids moments,
the children's attic bedroom remains in place and then lowers to stage level. The transformation of the
park into wonderland is handled with a nice sense of nonsense, all colorful
cut outs, and the roof-top setting for Bourne's best work, the fantastic
"Step in Time" dance, is a fine Broadway
representation of the world that only the stars, the birds and the chimney
sweeps saw in Edwardian London. Then, the final flyaway moment, when Mary Poppins
flies up and out of the proscenium, over the heads of the audience in the
orchestra section and up, up, up past the mezzanine and beyond the balcony
is as memorable as everyone hopes it will be.
Music and lyrics by Richard
M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Book by
Julian Fellowes based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney
film. Co-created by Cameron Mackintosh. Directed by Richard Eyre.
Choreography by Matthew Bourne. Musical direction by Brad Haak.
Orchestrations by William David Brohn. Design: Bob Crowley (set and
costumes) Howard Harrison (lights) Steve Canyon Kennedy (sound). Cast: Eric
B. Anthony, Ann Arvia, Ashley Brown, Jane Carr, Nick Corley, Katherine Leigh
Doherty or Kathryn Faughnan or Delaney Moro, Ruth Gottschall, Matthew Gumley
or Henry Hodges or Alexander Scheitinger, James Hindman, Daniel Jenkins,
Gavin Lee, Brian Letendre, Matt Loehr, Rebecca Luker, Michael McCarty, Sean
McCourt, Tyler Maynard, Vasthy E. Mompoint, Cass Morgan, Megan Osterhaus,
Mark Price, Janelle Anne Robinson, Catherine Walker.
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