When, as a small child, I was first shown the movie Disney’s “Mary Poppins” by my mother, I didn’t like it all that much. I recently was shown it as a teenager, and I quite enjoyed it. The catchy music was enjoyable, and I thought that the storyline was quite interesting. Seeing the Broadway musical was something that I was starting to look forward to. After seeing the musical on stage, my opinion on it is that I much prefer the movie. Disney’s “Mary Poppins” is being performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis till the twenty-eighth of April. It was written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Richard Eyre.
Madeline Trumble, who grew up in St. Paul, starred in the beloved role of Mary Poppins. I felt that she was poorly cast. She played the role as if Mary Poppins was a mean nanny, and not the kind and sweet nanny that she is supposed to be. Her voice was off putting to me, but I couldn’t figure out why. All in all it was an unsatisfying performance. Although I didn’t find that the lead actress was fit for her role, there were a few actors who were absolutely perfect. For example, Kerry Conte, who played the role of Winifred Banks, was absolutely amazing. She had a marvelous voice that sounded like the sweetest honey. Ms. Conte was so endearing in the way that she played the role.
In my opinion, the sets and the costumes were some of the best parts of “Mary Poppins”. They were colorful and dull at the same time. I especially liked the way that the Bank’s house popped out of the backdrop like a foldout book. The rooms in the house looked like they were drawn in a Victorian style of drawing. The rooftops of London backdrop meshed well with “Step in Time” and was totally gorgeous to look at. All of the costumes were captivating and detailed, no matter how long they were actually used on stage. The glittering night sky blue suits that were worn by the chorus at the end of the show were hardly even worn, and yet they were incredibly intricate and magnificent. Mary Poppin’s outfits were accurate to the movie. I believe the only outfit that was omitted from the show was the red and white outfit that Mary Poppins wears in the fantasy world that’s inside the sidewalk chalk drawing.
I just didn’t care for the show. Though there were some wonderful things in the show, the dancing was just alright, and, for the most part, the singing was only pretty okay. I started to notice some of the younger members of the audience either falling asleep, leaving the theater, or getting squirrely. Maybe if Disney’s “Mary Poppins” was shorter and had a different actress playing Mary Poppins, I would like it more. But in my opinion, the show was just too long for both kids and adults. All in all, I didn’t find it to be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
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