MARY POPPINS
Prince Edward

In collaborating in this adaptation of its magical movie, Disney has set itself an enormously challenging task. Having created indelible memories for at least two generations of cinemagoers one almost approaches the stage musical by accepting that the original cannot be bettered.
Wisely, they have kept it simple, taking the songs from the film, losing a few, adding some new ones by Olivier Award winners Drewe and Stiles and finding a showstopping Mary.
And it will do well, as this is a slick, bravura production.
Laura Michelle Kelly is a luminous centrepiece. She has a bright, musical voice and finely balances her performance so that she is prominent and charming without being overpowering. She is nicely coupled with a similarly understated Gavin Lee as Bert, lanky and athletic and so reminiscent of the young Michael Crawford in Hello Dolly.
Children Michael Stott and Charlotte Spencer, quite a bit more unpleasant than the film version, put in lovely performances.
It is a big night, too, for Sarah Keeton, plucked from the chorus to play a motherly Mrs Banks, but without the Sister Suffragette song to give the role a bit of spirit. Trinidadian Melanie La Barrie makes an unusual appearance as an eccentric magic letter vendor and this section works very well indeed. The moving sets, of the Banks’ household and rooftops, are splendid.
However, David Haig’s Mr Banks suffers the same problem he did playing Rudyard Kipling on stage. He is just not stiff upper-lip enough so the deconstruction of his world is not quite as poignant as it ought to be.
Similarly some of the film’s set pieces are rather lost – the bright, merry scenes of the film’s Jolly Holiday are grey and lifeless here, while Mary fails to float in on the wind at her first entrance. A pity.
Did I enjoy this show? Yes. Was I swept away by it? Not entirely.

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Until September 2005