Theatre
| NEWS |  | | | SPORT | | | | | | FOOD AND WINE | | | | | | WHAT'S ON | | | | | | NEWS | | |
|
|
|
Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre
After our sopping summer, the very thought of umbrellas and heavy showers is enough to have many Oxfordshire residents reaching for something altogether stronger than a spoonful of sugar. But I have to say a trip to see Mary Poppins at London's Prince Edward Theatre proved a much needed jolly holiday from the county's flood misery when I made it last month.
The Disney/Cameron Mackintosh musical version of the P.L.Travers stories blew into London's West End back in December 2004. Talk of a national tour is now very much in the wind, but with the theatre in Soho still packing them in, the show has been freshened up with the return of Scarlett Strallen (right) in the title role.
Ms Strallen took a short break from the fun and games at Cherry Tree Lane to appear alongside Judi Dench and Simon Callow in the Royal Shakespeare Company's musical The Merry Wives. From the moment she arrives on the stage to announce herself with the song The Perfect Nanny, she takes this most lavish of productions primly by the scruff of the neck and ensures we remain captivated until the breathtaking high-flying finale. Mysterious, yet no nonsense, loving but distant, loyal while always likely to reach for the brolly and fly out of town, Mary Poppins - as director Richard Eyre clearly recognises - must be played as an Edwardian shooting star, fleetingly magical and then gone forever.
With a surprisingly large number of new songs, this musical certainly does not mirror the Disney film version, as does the stage show Beauty and the Beast. In many ways it easily surpasses the Julie Andrews tour de force - never more so than in Mary's dealings with her employer, the tormented father, played with a touching sincerity by Aden Gillett. A lump must come to the throat of every workaholic parent who hears him declare: "Things that really matter, I lost along the way."
His own nanny, played with Margaret Thatcher-style fury by Louise Gold, shows just why the head of the household is so messed up. Mr Banks's journey from being an emotionally crippled banker to a free-spirited loving father was for me the show's greatest delight, made all the more moving by the excellent Rebecca Thornhill as his increasingly desperate wife.
For my children, it is the chimney sweeps' big roof top set that will linger in the memory. Gavin Creel, as their leader Bert, bears a remarkable resemblance to David Beckham with his beaming smile and appealing Cockney chirpiness as he energetically dances between the chimney pots, watched by the wide-eyed Daniel Barber and Olivia Griffiths, by then brimming with confidence as Michael and Jane.
Mary Poppins runs at the Prince Edward Theatre until Januay 12 next year. For box office, call 0870 850 9191.
3:21pm Wednesday 29th August 2007
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
