Theater review: Mary Poppins

by John Garcia of John Garcia's The Column

DALLAS — Motion pictures turned into musicals. Good? Bad? Undecided?

Just this recent season, we saw two films transformed for the stage open on Broadway, each resulting in mixed reviews and audience responses. Shrek survived the uneven critical reception and is still playing at the Broadway Theater.

The other, 9 to 5, alas became a casualty and was buried along a long list of recent movie to musical flops that could not find its artistic niche or financial success.

It's a very tough and challenging task for an artistic team to take a hit film and transform it onto a live stage. You want to keep the components that made the film such a hit within the stage show, but you also need to create and expand new colors, themes, music, characters, and even emotion to make it truly unique and engaging for the stage boards.

This past summer, Dallas Summer Musicals brought into town the lackluster and utterly yawn-inducing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the Music Hall. That one destroyed (for me personally) the elements that made me enjoy that classic family film.

For this year's state fair musical, DSM has brought the first national tour of Mary Poppins to the Music Hall at Fair Park, which turns out to be a sweet, delicious, musical treat that will charm both the adults and kids!

Based on the classic 1964 Walt Disney Film, this charming tale of a fresh new nanny entering the Banks family opened on Broadway in November 2006. After 1,197 performances, it is still going strong at the New Amsterdam Theater. The musical received seven Tony nominations, including Best Musical. That year, Bert & Ms. Poppins competed against Kander & Ebb's Curtains, Grey Gardens, and the powerful Spring Awakening (which won that night).

As it always happen, there are design element changes and adjustments from the original Broadway version for the tour. For example, the massive towering Banks mansion has now become a combination of actual set and painted backdrops, not the actual massive mansion that drew gasps.

Several songs from the film have also disappeared, which sadly included one of my personal favorite numbers, "Sister Suffragette." The stage version has a hodgepodge of songs from the film and new numbers. Alas, a couple of the new numbers just don't add much character development or structure, and even slow the action a tad. But the numbers that are from the film are vibrant and glow with sparkling charm.

Physically, the design elements for this tour are spectacular. Howard Harrison's lighting design is mouth watering marvelous. The stage is saturated in exquisite colors from every hue. I particularly enjoyed how we went from grey, sad colors, and rain to exploding, vivid colors.

Bob Crowley (along with William Ivy Long & Theoni Aldridge) is one of my personal favorite costume designers working on Broadway today. For Poppins he has designed a whimsical, wild, zany, and fantastic array of costumes. From big, plush "toys," to statues, to candy colored gowns with funny bustles, to chimney sweeper suits covered in jewels -- they are all marvelous in design and execution. Crowley also designed the sets, which work beautifully for this tour. The house still is massive, and then there is slick black & white painted backdrop for the bank, the dazzling Shoppe for Mrs. Corry, and so on. Let's not forget the massive umbrella in the second act!

Several local "equity" houses around town might want to see this version of Mary Poppins and learn a lesson on non-traditional casting. It was a refreshing sight to see several key roles portrayed by actors of color, as well as in the ensemble. It was not distracting nor did it take away whatsoever from the story. Instead it achieved success in giving the story a universal appeal that all children of all colors can enjoy.

The ensemble worked like a well-oiled machine in providing each musical number fantastic energy! They sang in lush harmonies and danced with pristine precision and superb commitment on the choreography created by Matthew Bourne (of the all-male Swan Lake fame).

Some of the show-stopping numbers of the night include "Step in Time" and of course the rousing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." The choreography created by Bourne for that number alone is worth the price of admission. The rapid hand gestures, the body contortions, and constant movement left the audience in a dizzy spell of wild applause.

Within the large cast, there were several performances that deserve accolades of praise:

Q. Smith touched many a heart with her lonely, sweet "Bird Woman;" the tall & gorgeous Kiara Bennett delivered a jovial, adorable performance as "Mrs. Corry;" Wendy James gave the right amount of snooty rich broad (with her puppet pooch) as "Ms. Lark;" Andrew Keenan-Bolger steals several scenes as the bumbling yet frightened butler/boy "Robertson Ay;" and Brian Letendre danced superbly as the Greek statue "Neleus."

As George & Winifred Banks, Karl Kenzler & Megan Osterhaus both portrayed proper British parents who seem to have forgotten what it means to be a family. Kenzler is all stiff and taskmaster who demands his house be in order, but realizes he's lost his children's love and respect along the way. His transformation does tug at the heart by the end of the evening. Ms. Osterhaus is heavenly as the mother of the Banks household. It is a major crime that the role was not given more songs to sing. Osterhaus has only one big solo (in the second act), and her golden set of soprano pipes flow heavenly through the music hall within that one song.

The scene stealer of the night (and one my favorite performances of the night) was provided by Ellen Harvey as the evil, wicked "Miss Andrew." This tall Grande dame has a jaw dropping vocal range that left my jaw hitting the floor. With effortless ease she would soar to major high "A" soprano operatic notes, all the way down to an alto tone -- with not a hint of a crack. Her characterization was flawless. Full of vile contempt for children and their unruly behavior, she takes command of the stage and fills the music hall with her majestic stage presence. Ms. Harvey's character was another role that really deserved a couple of more musical numbers and stage time -- Ms. Harvey's radiant talents command that.

Gavin Lee as "Bert" has been with the production from the very beginning. From the London version (which earned him an Olivier nomination), then Broadway (receiving a Tony nod), and now he's on tour with the show. That's a good 4-5 years now. So you would think by now he would be "phoning it in" on stage. Not on Tuesday night when I saw the show. You would think it was opening night for him!

This tall, handsome Brit had so much energy he could light up all of New York, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. His humorous little ad-libs or comments on the action on stage (that I'm sure the balcony could not hear) only added more enjoyment to his performance. His facial expressions and use of his body like taffy created a marvelous "Bert" for all to enjoy. And yes, the man does actually walk all the way around the proscenium -- tapping and singing away! Mr. Lee is outstanding in this production.

My first opportunity to enjoy Ashley Brown's talents was in the horrible tour of Disney's On the Record, which came through a couple of years ago to DSM. It was a musical revue (a genre of musical theater I despise with a vengeance) of Disney music set in recording studio. One of the few bright spots was Ms. Brown and her elegant soprano voice.

She has the toughest role in Mary Poppins, in that she must make the audience forget Julie Andrews (who originated the film role) and create her own vision -- and Ms. Brown succeeds here. Once again, her pristine, lilting soprano voice works its magic on her various solos throughout the evening. She is able to crescendo then softly subside into soft tones with smooth vocal technique. She may be a stern nanny, but she still shows love and admiration to the children and it glows within Ms. Brown's warm, fuzzy, and loving performance. Brown also garners her own share of loud laughs with her line delivery and swooping exits from the stage. So we have her singing -- check -- her acting -- check. Dancing? Another check. Brown does a divine tap routine with the rest of the cast in "Step in Time." After watching her performance, I am floored that she was not nominated for the Tony Award for her glowing, fantastic performance as the nanny who can fly.

Speaking of flying -- she does just that! I think I had one of the best seats of the house as she flew just inches from my head ... and she winked at me! I felt like a little boy at that very second. It is truly a magical moment of live theater to see her fly all the way up into the balcony of the music hall! I actually got a lump in my throat when she flew high up into the rafters. Why? Because I remembered at that moment my childhood, my parents divorce, the way I look at life now that I am an adult. Because as a child, you see the world in such a different light. Watching Mary Poppins fly brought back those memories of what I thought of as a child. I, along with the audience, went ballistic with loud screams, gasps, and cheers as she flew away. She may have flown away with my heart in the process.

Don't miss out on this extravagant, heart tugging, loving, and sweet confection of a musical production. It will touch both the young and the young at heart.

GRADE: A-