Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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music and lyrics by Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman, book by Julian Fellowes,
directed by Richard Eyre
Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto
November 12, 2011-January 8, 2012
“A Spoonful of Sugar”
Mirvish Productions has scored a coup by securing the touring production of Mary Poppins for a November to January time slot since the musical is an ideal family entertainment and with its theme of an unhappy family brought back to life by magic is perfect for the holidays. The musical’s main difficulty is episodic nature, but Julian Fellowes the writer of the book, now more famous as the screenwriter for Downton Abbey, has bracketed the miscellaneous escapades of Mary Poppins and her changes with the upstairs-downstairs humour of the Banks’ household along with its financial worries and given shape to the work.
The 2004 musical is based not simply on the 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke but also on the original 1934 children’s novel by P.L. Travers that became the first of a series. Elements from the novel like the depiction of statues that come to life account for many of the differences between the movie and the musical. In the musical Bert (Nicolas Dromard), a jack-of-all-trades, becomes the narrator of the story. He shows us the house of George and Winifred Banks (Laird Macintosh and Elizabeth Broadhurst) where George’s insistence on “Precision and Order” has driven out any expression of emotion. He has forbidden Winifred to pursue her acting career (she was a suffragette in the movie) and it’s clear that the rebellion of the Banks’ children Jane and Michael is really the result of growing up in a loveless environment. Thus, in response to the children’s, not George’s, advertisement for a new nanny, Bert’s longtime friend, the magical nanny Mary Poppins ( Rachel Wallace) appears.
Fans of the 1964 film will be happy that such favourites as “Chim Chim Cher-ee”, “Jolly Holiday”, “A Spoonful of Sugar”, “Feed the Birds”, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”, “Step in Time” and, of course, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, even though they most often occur in completely different contexts than in the film. Two songs I wish had been included are “Stay Awake” and “I Love to Laugh”. To these songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, new songs have been added by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. In general, these songs help fill out the characters of the Banks parents--”A Man Has Dreams” for George and “Being Mrs. Banks” for Winifred. Otherwise, they fit in well to the music hall feel of the piece such as “Practically Perfect” for Mary Poppins and “Anything Can Happen” as a general statement of Mary’s worldview.
The production design by Bob Crowley manages to be both charming and spectacular. In London the Banks’s lived in what seemed a large solid dollhouse that rose, sank and opened in various ways. For the touring production Crowley has improved upon this by creating a house that seems like a huge pop-up book and thus lends a sense of whimsy to the whole story. Since the story is set sometime late during the reign of Queen Victoria, Crowley has happily used this as an excuse to bring back the practice of old-fashioned painted drops to set scenes--the most amusing of these being the forced perspective drop representing the intimidating grandeur of the bank where George works.
Crowley has makes much of the contrast between the drab, greyish world of London in autumn and the wildly colourful world of the imagination. This is at its eye-popping best when Mary takes the children on a “Jolly Holiday” into one of the paintings of the park that Bert had made that comes to life around them. In this as in the other dance sequences Matthew Bourne’s precise, witty yet elegant choreography is a joy in itself. It draws, appropriate for the setting on ballet, music hall and ballroom to create one set of fresh, joyful dance sets after the next.
The show could easily become an empty spectacle without an excellent cast to humanize the characters. Canadian Nicolas Dromard is a truly engaging Bert, who makes us care about the story simply through the wistful tone of his narration. He has a fresh open voice and is a wonderfully acrobatic dancer who in many ways embodies the spirit of the show. Rachel Wallace preserves the slight chilliness in voice and formality in demeanour that Travers depicts, but she also gives us subtle glimpses of an underlying warmth for the Banks family and for Bert that really make is long to know more about her past history with him.
Of the Bankses, Canadian Laird Mackintosh as George has the longest dramatic arc to traverse and he does it superbly. He moves physically and vocally from the self-imposed restrictions of his early life to the joyous freedom his feels near the end. It’s just too bad the role requires such a long period of restriction since we know from his appearances at Stratford and Opera Atelier what a fine dancer he is. Canadian Blythe Wilson played Winifred at the opening of the show in Toronto, but was summoned back to Broadway to play the role there. Her substitute Elizabeth Broadhurst is warmly sympathetic as Winifred though she could show more clearly that Winifred chafes more under her husband’s strict regime. Q. Smith is excellent as Miss Andrew, Mary Poppins harsh replacement, whose tyrannous tactics lead George to be the emotionally stunted man he is. Janet McEwen sings the Bird Woman’s song beautifully cuts through the sentimentality that easily could surround her.
Richard Eyre and co-creator Cameron Macintosh have paced the production well beginning with simple magic tricks that Mary Poppins performs using her amazingly capacious carpetbag and escalating to such coups de théâtre as Bert’s dance around the proscenium in “Step in Time” and Mary’s spectacular final departure. One wishes that that scenes such as “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “Step in Time” could appear less as set pieces and become more integrated into the action. One also wishes that the US production of the show could have kept the UK scene “Temper, Temper” where the Banks children’s toys sit in judgment on them and hold them responsible for their cruel actions. This was thought too frightening for American children in 2006 (under G.W. Bush), but I wonder if being held to account was rather more disturbing to the adults. This has been replaced, ironically, with a song called “Playing the Game”, which makes no real sense of the scene with the toys.
Despite these cavils, the show with its old fashioned story and up-to-date technology with please both young and old and will prove a great alternative to the theatrical Christmas “favourites” that have become so tedious.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Rachel Wallace and Nicolas Dromard. ©Disney/CML. Photo by Joan Marcus.
For tickets, visit www.mirvish.com.
2011-11-16
Mary Poppins