One of the most delightful children’s stories of all times was “Mary Poppins“, whose creative  and astonishing ways of looking at the world changed an ordinary home into one filled with magic and exciting adventures.  In fact, Mary Poppins was all about turning the ordinary into the extraordinary as she sweeps into the Banks’ home on an umbrella and her two small charges learn that a nanny isn’t just a nanny, a chimney sweep’s view from the rooftops is filled with enchantment, an old lady selling feed for birds is a better investment than putting your two-pence in a bank, and a spoonful of sugar helps any medicine go down.

When Walt Disney crafted the book into a movie, with fantastic musical scores, the film was an instant success and “supercalifragilisticexpealidocious” rolled off every tongue easily, and became a household word.  There’s no doubt that the skilled performances of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke added to the film’s popularity.  With Julie’s incredible voice and Van Dyke’s elastic body electrics, it’s difficult to imagine the show going on without them, but it can!

In 1993, theatrical producer, Cameron Mackintosh met the author of the book, Pamela Travers and acquired the rights to produce a stage musical of the popular book.  Collaborating with Disney Productions for the use of the songs, the new theatrical version hit the stage in 2004.  The musical became an instant international hit, receiving two Oliver Awards, and seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and winning Best Scenic Design.

The theatrical version continues to be a sell-out, with enthusiastic crowds returning for every chance to see once more the Mary Poppins magic.  Don’t kid yourself; this is a performance for children only.  No matter what your age, you’ll fall to the charm of this one-of-a-kind classic.  Reviewers say it’s everything you would expect from a top Broadway play, and so much more.  Spend your evening in the wonderful world of Mary Poppins, where anything is possible, for after all, in her own words, she can’t just keep coming back.  She brought the magic, but some day, we’ll all have to learn her lessons and spread it.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 11:12 am and is filed under Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.