Mary Poppins the Musical is a musical theatre adaptation of the famous Disney film. It’s based on the Disney film, where a magical Nanny called Mary Poppins joins the Banks family. It’s a good show on stage, but a bit weird at times! Here’s my Mary Poppins the Musical theatre review.
Overview of Mary Poppins the Musical
Mary Poppins the Musical is based on the famous 1960s Disney film, Mary Poppins. The musical follows a similar story to the film, but there are quite a lot of changes. But if you’ve seen the film Mary Poppins, my Mary Poppins the Musical theatre review won’t give any major plot spoilers. It’s not really the type of show with impressive plot twists anyway.
Mary Poppins the Musical starts with Mary Poppins appearing in the Banks house. Mary Poppins is a magical Nanny. She has come to look after the two children, Jane and Michael Banks. The children have been struggling with their previous Nanny, and also with their distant father. So Mary Poppins arrives to help the children and bring the family back together.
Mary Poppins takes the children on several magical adventures. They’re often joined by Bert, a chimney sweep. Through the children’s adventures with Mary Poppins, they start to grow closer with their father. And so the musical has a lovely happy ending, where Mary Poppins flies away and leaves a much happier, closer Banks family.
What I liked about Mary Poppins the Musical
I enjoyed a lot of the show Mary Poppins the Musical. The highlight for me was the staging, set and special effects.
The set on the stage was really impressive. There was a really intricate house, that came out from the back of the stage and opened up so we could see inside the house. There were various rooms inside the house, and stairs, which all worked well for different scenes. And there were also scenes where the nursery would close again, and then the actors would walk over the roof of the house with the chimneys. The set was really impressive.
The special effects in the show were amazing as well. There was one particularly memorable moment where Bert, the chimney-sweep, walked up one side of the stage, and then walked upside down along the top of the stage, and then down the other side. That was really impressive. And right at the end, Mary Poppins flew out from the stage. But she didn’t just fly across the stage – she flew right over the audience. It was really impressive to see her fly up and over the audience.
The singing, acting and dancing in the show was great as well. I thought Mary Poppins was brilliant. Inevitably, anyone playing Mary Poppins is going to be compared to the iconic Julie Andrews in the Mary Poppins film. But the actor playing Mary Poppins in the musical was brilliant. The two children were great as well – it’s a long show, with a lot of dialogue, songs and dances. But the two children did everything perfectly and didn’t seem to make any mistakes. It was really impressive. And the woman who sang the ‘Feed the birds’ song was amazing – she had the most amazing, rich singing voice, and made that performance really memorable. There were plenty of new songs as well, which I enjoyed.
What I wasn’t so sure about
Although there were a lot of aspects of Mary Poppins the Musical that I enjoyed, there were quite a lot of parts that seemed a bit weird. A lot of the ‘magical’ scenes were different from the film. And a lot of these came across as quite weird.
Weird magical scenes
The most weird of the magical scenes was the scary clown scene. I didn’t really understand it at the time. And I’m writing this review a few days after seeing the show – and I feel like I understand it even less now. There was something about the children being naughty, and I think they were being punished for something. Then a weird yellow clown-sort of person came on stage, and the yellow clown person was quite scary. And then massive inflatable hands and a clown face appeared over the house on the stage. With the shadow-y lighting, it was quite scary – especially for a children’s show! I didn’t really understand the point of the scary clown person.
The first magical scene was also quite weird. It was the scene for the song ‘Jolly Holiday’. But there were just a random selection of people on stage, and then suddenly Queen Victoria was there. I didn’t really understand the relevance of Queen Victoria being there, it felt very random. And then the fountain people came to life and danced around. They were excellent dancers, but their costumes were very revealing and it was a bit weird.
Another magical scene that wasn’t in the original scene was in a shop, where the shop owner was a woman who seemed to remember their father when he was a child. But I couldn’t work out if the shop owner was meant to be a magical time-travelling person, or whether she was just old enough to remember their father as a child. It was a bit confusing – but maybe better if you didn’t try to think about it too much.
I got the impression that the magical scenes were changed from the film to make them feasible to do on stage. Which I understand – having a tea party on the ceiling would be challenging on stage, even though I did enjoy that scene in the film! But the magical scenes just seemed a bit random and didn’t make too much sense.
The evil Nanny
Another big plot change from the film is that at the end of the first half, Mary Poppins leaves the Banks family. This definitely isn’t in the film, so it was a surprise for her to fly off in the middle of the show! But then it got a bit weird again. At the beginning of the second half, the children had a new Nanny. And she was an evil Nanny. She was completely like Ursula from the Little Mermaid – she seemed exactly the same character. The Ursula-Nanny was only in the show for one scene before Mary Poppins arrived back. So again, it just felt a bit random.
Plot changes from the Mary Poppins film
There were a lot of other plot changes from the Mary Poppins film. The scene where Jane and Michael go to the bank with their father wasn’t anywhere near as significant a scene in the musical as it was in the film. It happened a lot earlier in the musical, and
Lots of plot changes. Jane and Michael going to the bank wasn’t as big a thing in the musical – it was glossed over much earlier in the show. So then Mr Banks’ troubles at the bank weren’t caused by the scene with Jane and Michael. Instead, Mr Banks got in trouble with the bank because of an investment decision. But in the musical, he was having mental health issues for quite a lot of the show because of the issues at work. His work issues were resolved, and there was still the happy ending – but he was unhappy for a lot of the show, which was a bit sad to see.
Another big plot change in the musical is that the main ‘Let’s go fly a kite’ was sung between Bert and the children. In the film, it’s a lovely heart-warming scene at the end of the film between the children and their father. In the musical, it was sung again at the end with Mr Banks – but the main song was with Bert. It felt a shame to take that song away from Mr Banks at the end of the show.
Would I recommend going to see Mary Poppins the Musical
I did enjoy Mary Poppins the Musical, so I would recommend going to see it. It was an enjoyable show. The staging, set and special effects were brilliant. And the singing and acting were all great, with some nice new songs as well. I just wasn’t so sure about a lot of the plot changes from the film. And a lot of the plot changes just felt quite weird. But as long as you don’t try to work out the new plot too much, and accept that some of it will be a bit weird, it’s still an enjoyable show. But it’s a long show – over 2.5 hours – so not the best for fidgety children!
Hope you enjoyed my Mary Poppins the Musical theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
