Mary Poppins Jr.

I have to admit that I have only ever seen the film of P.L. Travers’ beloved story and so this was my first look at Julian Fellowes and Cameron Macintosh’s musical version based on Disney’s classic film. Directed by Luke Skeel and assisted by year 10 pupil Madison English this version was presented by year groups 5-7 it was divided in two teams for the run, Yellow and Blue. On the night we went it was the Yellow team’s turn. It is of course the story of two unruly children who have gone through a series of nannies until the arrival of Mary Poppins who woos the children’s behaviour with adventures, magic and common sense.

After receiving our tickets from the very friendly and efficient FOH staff, it was a very hot steamy night as we went into the studio theatre, which thankfully has air conditioning, to be greeted by a dimly lit auditorium with plenty of stage effect smoke, which neatly set the scene and atmosphere of a 1910 fog bound London.

The stage settings were all done by moving the square wooden seating sized blocks around to represent the various scenes, which was very well done by the cast themselves, although it was quite difficult at times to work out what was represented by what in this fast moving story.

It would appear that 4SIXTEEN have finally found a replacement lighting man for their ex-pupil Ben Cronin, who had returned once again for this production, but this time to train year 7 pupil Baxter Sturge. Apparently left to his own devices for this performance, what a great job Baxter did of it too, as apart from one glitch where we were all plunged into darkness for a couple of seconds the lighting cues were perfectly executed.

Sound by Emily Green, Lyra Colliss and Ryan Furey was certainly loud enough for my aging ears and all mics worked well without a glitch, but strangely I did find it a little bit distorted at times and sometimes hard to follow the dialogue clearly. My young trainee assistant who accompanied me had no such problems, so it might just have been me, but I don’t think I was the only audience member with that problem..?

Costumes by Sophie Kelk were well sourced for the 1910 period especially for the ladies with excellent outfits for Mary Poppins and Winifred Banks. The chorus was dressed in white tops and black skirts or shorts.

Choreography by Daniella Reynolds and assisted by year 10 pupil Leia Garrett was simple, and it had to be with such a large ensemble on a small stage, but very well drilled and carried out with great confidence and enthusiasm by the cast.  Well done.

The acting in this was excellent with all the leads establishing their characters well. Grace Rodgers as Mary Poppins not only acted her part exquisitely, but what a great voice to go with it. And of course she had us singing along with all the classic numbers: A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Brimstone and Treacle, etc. 

The two children Michael and Jane Banks played by Jim Boddington and Bea Felice were supercharged, dashing around with great enthusiasm and confidence. They were certainly enjoying themselves to our great entertainment. Great version of Perfect Nanny.

James Leask was a perfect Bert, confident with a cockney cheek, very Dick Van Dyke but with a far better cockney accent! Imposed his mark from the moment he led the chorus in the prologue. 

The parents Winifred and George Banks, well played by Erin Horgan and Nate Dunkley were every bit the grownup parents. Led an excellent version of Cherry Tree Lane together with the young, put upon, kitchen boy Robertson Ay played by Kian Grant.

We had a great supporting cast of various characters whose short scenes kept the pace and story ticking over, from Dolly Davis as the strict nanny Katie Nanna to Norah Szicso as the old Lady who entreats us to “Feed the Birds”, not easy to play, so well done. Or the greedy bank Chairman well put across by Samuel Moore, Willow Lewis as the humourless secretary Miss Smythe. Grace Breen as Miss Andrew, George Banks’ scary nanny with a well delivered version of Brimstone and Treacle, and the two opposite businessmen applying for loans at the bank: Clem Oliver as Von Hussler, the dodgy businessman and Freddie Coombes as the honest businessman, John Northbrook, Mia Challis as the eccentric owner of the Magic shop. Plus of course a great, very well drilled and enthusiastic chorus who played various parts from Chimney Sweeps to vagrants, buskers and passersby.

Well done indeed to Luke Skeel, his cast and crew. A great fun production, which first and foremost was well rehearsed and above all everybody was thoroughly enjoying playing their various roles. If I may offer one piece of advice it would be to slow your speeches down. The pace was good but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the speed of delivery of lines, picking up cues quickly is the secret to good pace, but a slower delivery with good projection puts the icing on the cake.

 

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