Mary Poppins National Tour | Bullet Train Act One is Forgiven Thanks to Mary's Voice and The Dad Scenes
By Mark Baratelli
UPDATE 1-10-12: The cast of Mary Poppins is doing a cabaret called "Peace, Love and Poppins" to raise money for United Way. One night only: Friday January 11, 2013 at 11:15pm. Buy tickets through the Mad Cow Theatre Box Office: 407-297-8788.
This is not a review. I am not a theatre critic. My tickets were comped. I had a drink before Act One. With that out of the way, I loved the crap out of Mary Poppins, the national touring show currently at the Bob Carr this weekend. I want to share, in list form, some thoughts I had on it.
If you don't know the plot, here you go.
Act One is a speedtrain running at full blast and it utterly ruins nothing. However, I don't know why this choice was made. If it's running time, then cut some lines.
The Dad's scenes in Act Two were the moments of realness in the show. They shut the wackadoodle rainbow parade off and let some actors act. And what they were talking about, and how it was written, was lovely and real. Thank you, producers, for that moment.
Cut the maid and her underling characters. In the film, they're funny. Here, they waste time.
The actress who played Mary Poppins has the best voice in the universe. I want to put her in a giant canary cage and sing for me. I don't care if you think that's creepy.
Bert was there.
The bird lady moment in the film is a HUGE learning moment. In this stage production, it felt to me like a blip.
When they announced that they would be visiting the oldest woman in the world, out comes a woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties. What did I miss?
May Poppins' Supercalifragelisticexpealidocious outfit is disgusting and should be donated to Goodwill. The aforementioned number should be dumped there as well. What is this spelling out the word with your body? The audience loved it (which is all that matters really) but I did not like it.
My favorite character was the extremely thin black ensemble member. She had orange eyeshadow you could see from where I was sitting and she seemed like one of the only human beings on stage in Act One. I felt like she was the only person I could connect with during that supersonic-speed act. Probably because of that eyeshadow.
The bank scene in Act One is such a cluster-f*** I wanted to stand up and walk out. What was going on? I figured it out eventually. But when you have 5 young men without age makeup or wigs hunched over using canes and walking like old men, a flat background painted to look like you were looking t the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and what felt like 500 other people in banker attire hubble-bubble-ing around in circles, it took some time for me to understand what I was watching.
Act One is fast. Did I mention that part?
The kids are supposed to appear poorly behaved in act one. To me, they did not. If they did, I missed it in the nonsense of dancing naked statues and hypercolor tents and dollhouse sets.
What did you think of the show?
Tickets for MARY POPPINS start at $41 and are available online, in-person at the box office (100 South Eola Drive, Suite 101, Orlando, Florida) or at the Amway Center Box Office. To charge by phone, call 1-800-982-2787. Group orders of 10 or more may be placed by calling 407-704-6116.
- Thursday, January 10 – 8:00 p.m.
- Friday, January 11 – 8:00 p.m.
- Saturday, January 12 – 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
- Sunday, January 13 – 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
