Eeeeeee!!!

Just typing the title of this post gets me all excited again. Aww, memories. So anyways, I think I just fufilled a dream of the child in me last night by going to watch Mary Poppins the Musical, in the West End here in London. It was AMAZING!!! It just started its second year here in London, where its been a sensation for the entire year (seriously, just try to go somewhere in the city, and not see some any adverts for it). Some of the best news I just found out that is going to take a run for it in the States, and will be on Broadway by October. I hope it is just as loved over there, because it seriously is one of those shows that just needs to be seen by everybody.

And to think, I wasn't entirely sure I was going to go. Even at the halfprice ticket booths, the cheapest seats available were £35 (which is cheap by London standards, but not when translated to American currency). I figured that it would be good, but more like just a play, with maybe the Sherman brothers' score from the Disney movie. But it was SOOO worth it!

When we got there and found our seats, before it even began, it was awesome. We were withing the first 15 rows, and fairly centered, up close in the stalls. Here are some pics of the theater (the Prince Edward). Yeah, that's right, I snuck my camera in.



(No.17 Cherry Tree Lane)

One of the coolest things was the way they used screens for the production. Within the first 15 minutes I was in awe. Way to show the world how awesome theater can be with incorporation of modern technology!


The sets were absolutely amazing. The house for No.17, was like looking into a giant dollhouse, with the different rooms, all open with the walls not extending fully toward us. The top of the house, the roof, was the exterior, and the kids would go up the stairs and come out onto the balcony on the roof, or peer through a window. But the coolest part, is that when Mary and the kids would go upstairs into the nursery, the main section of the house would slide back, and the nusery/top floor would drop down out of the roof/rectangle/box, and there they were, with us looking into the nusery part of the giant doll house.



The way they made use of all sorts of stage tricks was amazing too. Nothing is new these days because we are so spoiled as an audience, but the stuff they came up with was able to put just the right effect in just the right places without over-kill; the birds at St Paul Cathedral or the items coming out of Mary Poppins bags. She seriously took a lamp, a mirror, and a plant out of her carpet bag..after it was on a table that was away from the back of the set, and on top of a table--just like in the movie. She also pulled a sheet out of it, and then her and Jane flap it, or whatever it is you do, and then she just drops it down, and it takes the form of a bed (like while the sheet was stretched out for a split second, they shot up a bed from a trap door or something). They even fly kites! Not like, fake flying kites, where it's all stiff and obviously on a wire, these kites were fluttering about.

Even though, you know, as grown people, that there are wires, and trap-doors to make stuff possible, there were just little things that made you feel like a little kid again, like it was magic! Her and the kids actually shoot up the chimeny and onto the roof, and they put a doll into a little doll house and suddenly there's a giant doll/person inside it.

There's also a moment where during the Step-In-Time chimney sweep bit (which was freaking awesome cause they all tap-danced) where Burt continues his tap-movements as he climbs the stage-left side of the arch, then is suspended upside down from the ceiling tap-dancing upside down and finally descends by the stage-right arch....it was really cool.

So already you got spectacular giant doll's house of a design, the mystifying magic effects and the stunningly inventive choreography, leaving you with your mout hanging open. And I haven't even gotten to the performances or the music yet.

The show is based on both the book by P.L. Traver's and the play, so it has some different scenes from the movie. In the first outing, instead of popping into a chalk picture, they go to the park still, and a bunch of statues, including two Pans and even Queen Victoria, dance in the park.



Then in a rather scarey sequence, rag-dolls, hussars and other nursery toys come accusingly to life to punish naughty Jane and Michael.



OK, there are no cartoon penguins or pearly kings — but who cares when, say, the the sweeps swivel and tap so perfectly on the roofs of a night-time London?









There's also, instead of a "tidy up the nursery" scene, a scene where chaos controls the kitchen,and things start falling apart and breaking, cook's assisant, falls on the table breaking the legs of it, and everything sliding off onto the floor, but when Mary Poppins snaps her fingers, the table magnificently rights itself, and everything pops back on, it was crazy. Same thing happens similarly with a cabinet that breaks in half with dishes spilling out and breaking into the sink.

The scene at the bank is also different, but awesome (seriously, to get someone like me who loves the movie so much, to actually LIKE the changes they make, and not be upset about them, you know they had to be awesome).


(Yeah, you see those little guys on the pillars? They move. The whole time, every single one of them is like dipping their quills in their little ink pots and etc.)

And then there's this new character, the evil nanny/witch (who was Mr. Banks nanny as a child, which makes sense for how he turned out). And get this, her name is "Mrs. Andrews" heehee. So when they hire Mary Poppins, of course there's these side references about how, "we couldn't get Mrs. Andrews, she's too high of a caliber for us", which were funny. But this nanny is seriously evil, they even refer to her as 'the holy terror' and luckily Mary Poppins kinda destroys her (haha, I knew she had some mischief in her!)



Of course, part of the brilliance of the movie, was the music, and along with the marvelous original score by the Sherman brothers, some amazing new songs have been added and fit in perfectly. The "Chim chim cher-ee" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" numbers are show stoppers, and had the audience standing up and clapping, joining in on the fun, and one of the best songs was a new one that closes the show, Anything Can Happen (If You Let It)

which fits the style of the original music so well, you'd never assume it was written seperately. The crowd also stood and clapped along to this one too, which turned into a crazy encore of Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious, and then a bit of this song again!!

I have to say, the cast was brilliant. Some of the characters were re-cast when it picked up for the second year (including Mary Poppins) but Gavin Lee (who is like the Fred Astair of the West End) remains as the original Burt, and I have to say I think he was my favorite, along with Mrs. Banks (who has a much larger role than in the film, and also one of the great new songs "Being Mrs. Banks"). Even the kids suprised me by keeping up so amazingly, with great acting, even better singing, and dancing (I don't know how they kept up with the Superblahblahblah dance, that was insane!).

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. Mary Poppins slides up the banister (which I was hoping for but didn't actually expect to get!)AND she really does fly!! In fact, she flew out directly over Erin and I at the end. It was amazing.

(This picture is from the first time she flies--not the time she was by us)


It is a thoroughly professional show, and one that makes you feel like your in heaven. Or maybe for you just a really happy place, but to me a really happy mary poppins place, is practically heaven. It was so hard to leave the theater and calm down. Everyone was just on a high. Even Abby was raving about how amazing it was, and one of the best musicals ever, and she's usually more reserved with assigning things such powerful titles. Erin said she loved it even more than the Lion King, and it made us so sad to think that we'd never be able to describe how good it was or bring friends and family to a show to see it for themselves, but today when we all found out it was going to the states in October, everyone said they most definitely want to see it again. So either it better be a smash hit on Broadway and get to tour afterwards (more specifically hopefully somewhere near, like Chicago or St. Louis), because I am going again, and taking some of you with me.

For a tiny taste, go here, and watch this video clip (which can I say makes me excited, thinking if they recorded it, there might be a dvd release in the future?): WATCH ME NOW!

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