Mary Poppins

There’s a scene in the current Australian production (and presumably the other international productions) that is without doubt the climax of the show.

I won’t tell you what happens – though you can probably guess – since I don’t want to spoil the magic of the moment in case you’re planning to see the show which has already run in Melbourne, is currently in Sydney, and will presumably move to Brisbane next.

“A little tear welled in my right eye and rolled down my check when that happen”, I told my friend Colin as we enjoyed a post-show post-mortem. “Me too”, he told me.

The thing about Mary Poppins is that it’s all so wonderfully familiar from childhood, but importantly this production includes a few magical surprises.

The songs are brilliant, though I’m stuck with an supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as an earworm.

The cast is energetic to say the least. The dance routines go on and on, and you wonder from time how much energy the cast expends while doing them. The actor who plays Mary is on stage for most of the production.

Although there were a couple of bits in the first half which I thought were a little “busy” (I think it’s the first half score that causes it), I though the second half was really well-timed and enjoyable.

And then of course, you have THAT scene.

The audience contained a lot of “mums with kids”, and I really hope it was the kind of magical theatre experience that will keep them coming back to live theatre for many years to come.