It’s hard to believe, as legend has it, that author P.L. Travers was highly disapproving of Walt Disney’s 1964 screen musical based on her “Mary Poppins” books. For nearly 60 years now, an otherwise “practically perfect” classic film has been beloved by generations of audiences (myself included). When she signed over the stage rights to British theatrical impresario Cameron Mackintosh in 1993, Travers reportedly stipulated that no one affiliated with the Disney movie would be involved in its conception. (She died in 1996; the show eventually premiered in London in 2004, and opened on Broadway in 2006.)
Whether or not Travers was aware that the newfangled musical would retain most of the original Disney songs (by brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman) is unclear. Suffice it to say that nary a one of the added tunes (by the lesser-known team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe) can hold the slightest candle to the likes of the famous “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” “Feed the Birds,” “Step in Time” or “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
The revamped script by Julian Fellowes (“Downton Abbey”) incorporates characters and subplots from other entries in Travers’ “Mary Poppins” series. But do we really need to see the accident-prone antics of the assistant to the Banks family housekeeper? Or to meet the “holy terror” who was the nefarious childhood governess to Mr. Banks (and the cause of his emotional detachment as an adult)? In a word: No — and certainly not at the expense of, say, the sadly excised Uncle Albert sequence from the film.
Aurora Theatre initially produced “Mary Poppins” in 2014 (which I missed), and the recently appointed artistic director Ann-Carol Pence (who co-founded the company with Anthony Rodriguez) has been determined to remount the box-office hit since the troupe relocated operations to the larger Strickland Grand Stage at the Lawrenceville Arts Center. Original co-stars Galen Crawley and Andy Meeks reprise their roles as the buoyant titular nanny and the affable chimney sweep, Bert.
Newly re-directed by David Rossetti (sharing choreography credit with Jen MacQueen), the revival boasts undeniably sumptuous production values, including the Victorian-era costumes of Alice Neff, and the overall technical direction of Taylor Broyles (replete with special flying effects provided by a company called D2). Even with all the expansive stage space, though, Shannon Robert’s scenic design can be underwhelming: Just rolling the various set pieces into place results in prolonged scene changes, and the parlor of the Banks’ upper-class brownstone might as well be a cramped cracker box.
As music director, Pence (on keyboard) leads a fine 10-piece orchestra. In keeping with the show’s overblown tendencies, among the splashiest production numbers are an exuberant rendition of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” that spells out the word in flashing lights, and the showstopping “Step in Time” routine, featuring Bert and a chorus of other chimney sweeps.
Although there’s a pronounced vibrato quality about her singing voice that takes some getting used to, Crawley mostly charms in the daunting task of offering her own spin on an iconic character immortalized by the incomparable Julie Andrews, to say nothing of her fearless high-flying wire act on a few occasions in the show. For his part, Meeks is inclined to mugging a bit too much.
Mary Poppins’ precocious young charges, the Banks children Jane and Michael, were played by Kayla Furie and Jai Soundar at the performance I attended (alternating the roles with Adrienne Ocfemia and Max Walls). Both of them were as cute and adorable as they could be, but neither of them enunciated or articulated their dialogue or lyrics especially well, and Soundar seemed to be totally lost in a couple of the bigger musical numbers.
The parents, meanwhile, are marginally portrayed by Marcus Hopkins-Turner and Jillian Melko. She’s no longer a suffragette, but a former actress struggling to fit into high society. He’s still the stern loan officer at a bank, who neglects his wife and kids at home. Whatever crucial lessons those children may learn about growing up, the main takeaway from this iteration of the story has more to do with their father “rediscovering the human race” and accepting that there’s more to life than making money.
Granted, it’s somewhat strange logic, coming in the form of a commercial enterprise that has been officially rebranded as “Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins.”
Bottom line: The original Disney elements still outshine the newfangled Mackintosh tweaks.
THEATER REVIEW
“Mary Poppins”
Through Sept. 18. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. $11-$89. Strickland Grand Stage (at the Lawrenceville Arts Center), 125 N. Clayton Street, Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222. auroratheatre.com.
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