Mary Poppins
3 stars
Original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman; book by Julian Fellowes; additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Co-created by Cameron Mackintosh, directed by Thom Allison and choreographed by Kerry Gage. Until Jan. 6, 2019 at Young People鈥檚 Theatre, 165 Front St. E. or 416-862-2222
Signs of seasonal change in Toronto: Christmas window displays going up, snow in the forecast and unveiling its holiday show.
This year鈥檚 musical entertainment for school audiences (with weekend public performances) is the beloved story of the 鈥渦ncanny nanny鈥 who straightens out the life of an unhappy family in Edwardian London.
The focus of this production, directed by Thom Allison and choreographed by Kerry Gage, are the musical numbers: the 14-strong cast are terrific singers and hoofers whose skills include tumbling and tap (for the show-stopping 鈥淪tep in Time鈥).
Those for whom the 1964 Disney film was a formative experience will have a wonderful time hearing all those great songs sung so well, and it鈥檚 gratifying to know that younger generations are being exposed to their special magic.
Less energy has been expended on the story鈥檚 supernatural elements. While appreciating that the scale here doesn鈥檛 allow for Mary to fly in over the audience鈥檚 heads (as she does in the stage version that is the basis of this production), there鈥檚 something deflating about her just walking into the Banks鈥檚 house.
While there are some fun visual effects 鈥 glow in the dark canisters popping up out of a kitchen cabinet in 鈥淎 Spoonful of Sugar,鈥 Mary鈥檚 hat rack emerging improbably from her carpet bag, a kite appearing above the stage 鈥 they rely on old-fashioned stage trickery that adds to the production feeling heavy and sometimes dated.
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More timely and very welcome is YPT鈥檚 approach to casting, which scrambles ethnicity and sometimes gender. Mary is played with winning crispness by homegrown musical theatre star Vanessa Sears; Mrs. Banks by Jewelle Blackman, in superb voice; and little Michael Banks by Black actress Hailey Lewis (his sister Jane is played by the more traditionally cast, and equally good, Jessie Cox).
It鈥檚 great to see performers mostly associated with the Shaw Festival getting a chance to strut their musical theatre stuff off-season: Kyle Blair is perfectly cast as the chimney sweep Bert and has terrific chemistry with Sears鈥 Mary, while Starr Domingue plays the shop mistress Mrs. Corry with great flair.
This version of the story, rewritten by Downton Abbey鈥檚 Julian Fellowes for a 2003 West End revival (a huge and multiply-revived hit that visited the Princess of Wales in 2011), puts a lot of focus on the Banks family鈥檚 dysfunction and paints Mr. Banks (Shane Carty) as a workaholic determined to parent his children as sternly as did his nanny Miss Andrew (Sarah Lynne Strange).
Cutting the material down to a 90-minute running time means that some aspects of the story go under-explained (what a chimney sweep is, for example), but this also seems necessary 鈥 the young audience started to get restive about 80 minutes in.
Along with the performers鈥 singing and dancing, the big star turn here is William Layton鈥檚 colourful, plentiful costumes: Mary moves between her signature long coat and flat hat to tea party attire for 鈥淛olly Holiday鈥; and the whole company switches to shiny primary colour outfits with clever stitched-in letters for 鈥淪upercalifragilisticexpialidocious.鈥
Spit-spot, off we go. Mary will always win hearts and you鈥檒l doubtless leave humming, even if this production feels a bit earthbound.
Correction 鈥 Nov. 12, 2018: This review was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said 鈥淢ary Poppins鈥 played at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 2011. In fact, the musical played at the Princess of Wales Theatre in 2011.
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