Friday night Malia and I got to enjoy an evening of the theater and see Mary Poppins. I'm not going to lie, I actually liked it more than I expected.
The set was well thought out. The front of the Banks' house looked like it was drawn in a children's book. The front opened up to show an interior that matched the exterior. Other sets were much simpler since most of everything else was driven by the background screen onto which the actual pictures were projected. And since we live in modern times, they weren't static images and that really helped bring everything to life. For example, while the bag lady sings "Feed the Birds" you get to see birds flying in the sky while it changes from afternoon to sunset.
The special effects didn't feel all that special, but were used sparingly. When the butler "destroys" the kitchen, it made me miss all of my crash dummy action figures. And while the controlled chaos is necessary for consistency's sake, it really dulls Mary's magic when she fixes it. Nothing is insultingly bad and it's a treat for the eyes, but there wasn't an effect that left me astounded. Maybe being a little further away would have helped on some of that. There were two effects that stole this show, both near the end. One was having Mary leave the Banks and fly away over the crowd. The other I'll get to a little later.
Of course there are some changes to help the story flow better. Some are great, others not so much. Remember the cartoon penguins? They're gone and now everybody dances with naked statues and mythological beings. A little research (AKA Wikipedia, the most trusted site on the Internet) reveals this is something from the original books. So while it's not against canon or anything, it surely is much creepier than what we all remember seeing as kids. I'm a little confused on why they turned Mrs. Banks into a former actress, since it's only brought up one time or why the park keeper is the show pervert with his binoculars glued to the rears of passing women. Probably supposed to be funny, but not so much. We also find out Mr. Banks isn't much of a family man because his nanny was something of a witch. While that exposition feels a bit out there, it pays off big when Mary takes leave and Mrs. Banks replaces her with Mr. Banks former nanny, Ms. Andrews. Honestly, I have no problem with the Anti-Poppins, she's played to perfection and is just mean enough to be easily recognized as "bad." Nothing outright evil or terrifying to little kids. Just that nearly everyone is scary compared to Mary Poppins. The bigger issue with Ms. Andrews is that she shows up, sings two songs and is promptly disposed of. For all the setup they give her, and as fantastic as the character is, she could have been used a little more. I think it's a result of being in the second act, which feels a bit rushed to just tie up all of the subplots and wrap it all up.
Other notable changes are nobody laughs long and loud and clear while floating on the ceiling and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (yes I did just copy and paste) is the result of Mary and the children meeting a crazy Jamaican lady in the park. Again she's pulled from the book, but fans of only the movie are left a little confused.
Mary Poppins was tweaked a bit too. We all know she's practically perfect (and sings a song to prove it), but she's also a bit stuck up in this. Many of her funny zingers are remarks about just how perfect and amazing she is. The first act ends with the children being terrorized by their mistreated toys, something we have to assume is caused by Mary. Ms. Andrews is taken care of by Mary, who puts her in a cage (like Andrews' mistreated bird) and sends her to what I can only assume is Hell. Lots of smoke, the whole place turns red, sounds like Hell to me. The unfortunate result of all of this is that while pretending to be very sweet and caring, you'd better listen to the egomaniacal Mary Poppins or she'll banish you to the netherworld. Not so sure that's the message anyone should be sending to little kids.
Which brings me to Bert or, as we all remember him, Dick Van Dyke. He's something of a guide throughout the whole show, reacting to the set changes, showing up in almost every scene and sometimes just general goofing while the background is being fixed for the next setup. I personally liked it, as I'm sure was the idea. He was always entertaining and most of the time it was a safe bet to ignore the rest of the cast and just watch what Bert was doing. The highlight of the night for Malia and me, as well as my favorite special effect was watching Bert walk up the side of the stage to tap dance on top of the ceiling. I can't imagine practicing it, let alone doing it night after night. While he was fantastic, I felt a little bad for Mary Poppins. The show is named after the character you play, but you're upstaged by someone else every time he turns up.
In the end, the show was a lot of fun and they did a lot of things right. Songs that we all know were really emphasized. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was turned into what felt like a 10 minute extravaganza, as it should be. New verses were added including a whole section where Mary spells it and Bert spells it with his body. Then everybody spells it with their body while singing. Then faster. Then again. Then a curtain falls with it written out so we can all follow along while they sing it again. And again. And the best part, I think they could have done another six or seven minutes and it would have been welcome, at least in my book. Really young children might get scared when Mary damns Ms. Andrews, but otherwise it's a great show for the entire family. If it ever gets close to you, grab everyone you know and check it out. We all need a little magic now and again.
