well the other major review is in, and you MP fans should be THRILLED! when a British show is on the fence, you can always rely on good old Clive to tip the scale in inexplicable ways. He gives it the only real "rave review" out of them all, so you can be sure that there will be plenty of NY Post quotes under the POPPINS marquee in a few days. I love Clive Barnes. He's one of the best writers out there, you never know what he'll take a liking to, and nobody sticks to their guns like he does. With how well Disney markets things, this could very well turn the show into a long-running moneymaker. It will be around longer than TARZAN to be sure.
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November 17, 2006 -- LOVELY! With her carpetbag, a parrot-headed umbrella for airy transport and the rare ability to slide up banisters, the inimitable heroine of "Mary Poppins" put down and took off at the New Amsterdam last night, courtesy of Cameron Mackintosh, Walt Disney and the original author, P.L. Travers.
"Mary Poppins" was fine as a Disney movie and is even better as this Broadway musical, imported sound and whole from London's West End. Let's play cute and call it - and the cast led by Ashley Brown, Gavin Lee, Daniel Jenkins and Rebecca Luker - supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Or words to that effect.
This story - of a supernanny who literally descends upon the unruly, unhappy Banks family on 17 Cherry Tree Lane, somewhere in Edwardian London, proceeds to restore order and then just as literally takes off into the heavens - has its own built-in magic.
And it's a magic that the musical, with its urbane and knowing book by Julian Fellowes, cleverly evokes in a manner a little darker, more mysterious and a good deal more authentic to the novel than the overly jolly movie version.
Most of the music, of course, is taken from the film's original score by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, so you probably go in humming the tunes. But the new and amiable songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe make a decent fit, and the whole patchwork, orchestrated by William David Brohn, has just that right Broadway belt and lilt.
What makes Mackintosh currently the best producer on Broadway and the West End is his creative touch and the manner in which he picks his collaborators, places them on the same page, and makes sure they stay there.
"Mary Poppins" looks and sounds complete - a perfectly engineered piece of musical theater.
The staging by Richard Eyre and co-director Matthew Bourne and choreography (Bourne and Stephen Mear) seem seamless, although perhaps Bourne, with a set of smoothly energized and imaginative dance numbers, deserves the most laurels.
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NY Post Review
"The last train out of any station will not be full of nice guys."
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
"I wash my face, then drink beer, then I weep.
Say a prayer and induce insincere self-abuse,
till I'm fast asleep"- In Trousers
Updated On: 11/17/06 at 04:11 AM
