Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Five stars
When Mary Poppins flies across the auditorium of the Festival Theatre at the culmination of this magnificent touring revival of co-directors Richard Eyre and choreographer Matthew Bourne’s now twenty-year-old production, it is both thrilling and terrifying to watch. Especially in light of Storm Éowyn, which on Friday night caused the cancellation of the official opening night of this Cameron Mackintosh and the Disney Organisation produced epic’s first visit to Edinburgh in over eight years.
Actress Stefanie Jones as Mary may have her brolly up as she soars above the audience, but you can’t help worry about how she would have fared if exposed to the hoolie outside. Mercifully, all was calm by the Saturday matinee, and other than a first act technical hitch, Mary Poppins was very much in charge once more.
This is how it should be in Julian Fellowes’ adaptation of P.L. Travers’ 1934 novel and its assorted sequels by way of Disney’s 1964 ebullient musical film. With now classic songs such as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman at the heart of the show, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s additional numbers are seamlessly incorporated into an already exuberant mix.
The story may be set in well-heeled central London where the Banks family reside, but its premise is one of anarchic liberation. With Michael D. Xavier’s uptight banker George and his repressed former actress wife Winifred, played by Lucie-Mae Sumner, unable to harness their brattishly unruly offspring, Michael and Jane, it is left to Mary P to act as a kind of celestial social worker and nanny the entire family back to domestic health.
Mary does this by introducing her infant charges to chimney sweep street artist Bert and a bustling community on their doorstep. Mary seems curiously well known to the likes of the Bird Woman, played by the magnificent Patti Boulaye. There is also the matter of a psychedelic sweetshop and some classical statues that spring to choreographed life. This chimes with the even trippier toy box awakening, with a gigantic doll looming over the house like an escapee from a badtime bedtime story.
Both form part of a series of extravagant set-pieces that burst to life in massed ensemble song and dance routines that are mini productions in themselves. Best of all is the chimney sweeps dance which sees Jack Chambers as Bert not just walk on walls, but tip-tap upside down on the ceiling too.
Like her spiritual sister Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Mary is a progressive educationalist who understands the power of play. Where Maria is a hill walking hippy, however, Mary’s buttoned up sternness gives her a quieter sense of authority. As played by Jones, she comes with a glint in her eye that only Bert fully appreciates.
Meanwhile, George is one of an army of emotionally stunted bankers substituting money for love after being traumatised by their own nanny, the knowingly named Mrs Andrew. This says much about men in power who throw their financial weight around. Spoonfuls of sugar and a lot more besides should be diagnosed post haste before Mary flies away again in a show that leaves you blown away, whatever the weather.
The Herald, January 27th 2025
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