Updated production of Mary Poppins a jolly time for all

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This article was published 16/08/2024 (766 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rainbow Stage’s practically perfect production of Mary Poppins arrived Thursday night, with the perennial crowd-pleaser proving sweeter than a spoonful of sugar.

Last mounted here in 2013, the latest staging at the now-70-year-old theatre is smartly led by longtime choreographer Alexandra Herzog, marking her Rainbow directorial debut.

It boasts an embarrassment of casting riches, headlined by the incomparable Colleen Furlan in the prim ‘n’ proper title role. She’s joined by Joema Frith — whose kilowatt smile could light up an entire night sky — as her “jack-of-all-trades” friend Bert, with the Banks family portrayed by Kevin Klassen (father George); Heather McGuigan (mother Winifred), and two rising stars, Isla Horner (daughter Jane) and Davison Gee (son Michael), both 11 years old.

For those pining for the glory days of 1964, this is not the original Disney version that first set a young Julie Andrews’ career ablaze in the role of the magical nanny from Australian-British writer P.L. Travers’s series of children’s stories.

There are no animated dancing penguins or barnyard animals bleating out choruses. What this version — based on the 2004 Broadway musical written by Julian Fellowes — offers instead is a more realistic, grittier take on family dynamics grown sour as well as the chokehold of British class consciousness and how the power of positive thinking can turn things around faster than you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The Sherman brothers’ iconic score — including such hits as Jolly Holiday and A Spoonful of Sugar — is fused with additional songs/lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe that instil freshness into Disney’s 60-year-old film, brought to life by a tight 13-member live orchestra led by music director Andrew St. Hilaire.

Set in Edwardian London, the story sees the well-heeled Banks family besieged by a stream of nannies who quit as the children keep running away to escape domestic discord.

Enter Mary Poppins, who solves all of life’s problems with a snap of her fingers and spoonful of sugar, as career-climbing banker George rediscovers his inner child and realizes his family comes before profits.

Furlan, who also performed in the cast’s ensemble back in 2013, brings spit-spot energy to her protagonist, with the triple threat’s crystal-clear soprano soaring higher than a kite during each of her selections, including Practically Perfect, Playing the Game and A Spoonful of Sugar, as well as show highlight Jolly Holiday.

This latter piece — one of the show’s all-too few, full-out fantasy numbers, in which the stage suddenly bursts into psychedelic colours — brings the stony statue Neleus from Travers’ tales back to life, with Ben Despins executing balletic moves with the lithe grace of a gazelle, all lit by Scott Henderson.

However, the deletion of several original Sherman songs, such as tender lullaby Stay Awake, means we also don’t often get to see Mary’s kinder, gentler side. More fleshed-out backstory, including her intriguing relationship with Bert, would have helped balance her otherwise crisp character, who nonetheless flies high above the stage, eliciting audible gasps of delight.

The charismatic Frith lights up the stage with irrepressible joy every time he appears as Mary’s trusty East London pal, topping even himself in (surprisingly) his only other Rainbow role to date as Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid.

His reprises of Chim Chim Cher-ee provide a leitmotif that compels, whether sung in the leafy park or when perched, now as a chimney sweep, on set/props designer David Boechler’s effective cutout rooftop. His Act II duet with George, A Man Has Dreams — in which the latter finally discovers his own humanity — resonates with gentle compassion.

Another spot-on performance is Klassen’s patriarchal George, self-described “sovereign and master” of 17 Cherry Tree Lane, resisting temptation to make his character cardboard cold. We witness his crumbling defences as he embarks on his emotional trajectory, ultimately realizing the root of his emotional pain when “the holy terror,” a.k.a. his own childhood nanny, Miss Andrews, abruptly appears in Act II, played with devilish imperviousness by Laura Olafson. Olafson’s portrayal, in which she lords over Banks and his family, recalls her equally powerhouse portrayal of sea witch Ursula in last summer’s The Little Mermaid.

The original story saw Winifred as a suffragette (her feisty Sister Suffragette is another chopping-block casualty). With her character now a former actress, tasked with throwing tea parties and climbing social ladders with her husband, McGuigan sensitively balances her long-suffering but dutiful wife persona with her own longings for autonomy.

Lara Ciekiewicz, right at home on Canada’s biggest opera stages, makes every moment count in her Rainbow debut as Bird Woman. She imbues her short, searing solo, Feed the Birds, with both dignity and resolve, matched by her luminous vocals.

Kudos to Horner and Gee for their confident sugar ‘n’ spice portrayals, as they squabble and bond like real-life siblings, blending their youthful voices together in perfect harmony during Act I’s Let’s Hope She Will Stay, among others.

The show especially sizzles thanks to choreographer’s Josh Assor’s full-out dance numbers, including Act I’s electrifying Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, performed at warp speed with the cast members acting out the individual letters after being pulled out of Mrs. Corry’s (Rochelle Kives) magical pop-up Talking Shop jar.

Step in Time is another showstopper in Act II; the stage practically catches on fire after filling with an ensemble of tap-dancing chimney sweeps, who kick their heels up and toss off syncopated, intricate rhythms during their white-hot (if a bit frenetic) performance.

The 165-minute (including intermission) feel-good production wraps up — as all good musicals arguably should — with characters’ increased self-awareness, growth and understanding of life’s unexpected twists and turns. Mary’s nuggets of wisdom, including, “Anything can happen if you let it,” remain words to live by, bringing her high-flying magic to our own lives.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca