Opening night, Fri., November 13th, my friend Kim & I drove to the Ahmanson theater in L.A. Why CAL TRANS decided to do pot hole repair on a Friday night during rush hour traffic, I’ll never know, and we arrived at the parking structure 18 minutes before show time! (Good thing we had allowed lots of extra time!) They had made it very clear that they wouldn’t let you in if you’re late, so I took off my heels and we run/walked (4 flights of stairs) all the way from the car to the door. We made it with time to hit the restroom, but no time to buy a program. More on that later.
We had been looking forward to this since I bought the tickets in April, and my expectations were high. But it was Disney! It was Broadway! How could it not be great? It was NOT great.
OK I’ll start with the highlights. There are two. “Step in Time” (2/3’s of the way through the almost 3 hour show) was FANTASTIC! It was the kind of choreographed, top-tapping number you expect from Broadway, complete with Bert doing his own Fred Astaire-esque dance on the wall and ceiling! Perfect number. “Supercalifra..”, etc., was also done very well. Cute choreography. Unfortunately I had seen this number several times on the Tony awards and talk shows, but it was still good.
Before I continue I must also say that the cast was wonderful. I understood almost every word (Exception: the butler character…have no idea what he was saying 80% of the time), and they were very talented.
OK, that’s where the good stuff ends. The show is put on by Disney, so wouldn’t you expect it to follow the movie? I think that’s what people expect and it’s what they want. I was really looking forward to what they would do with “Jolly Holiday” when they jumped into the chalk drawing. Guess what? No chalk drawings. Well, Bert did have 3 pictures hanging on the rod iron fence, but none on the ground. Then when they “arrived” in the fantasy world, there was no carousel, no horses, no penguins, only grey/white statues that come to life. Actors dressed in skin tight leotards with a few strategically places leaves. Mary and Bert were wearing hot pink and purple. Yes, I know this looks good on stage, but where are their red & white outfits? They were being worn by chorus members. With my binoculars I could see that the red/white striped jacket that the chorus member was wearing was really pink/white and not red, but it still looked weird. If you’re going to put Mary & Bert in another color, don’t put the chorus members in “their” costumes. So, back to the number, well that’s it. The “frozen” actors come to life and dance. rah. Nothing magical about it.
The potential for this scene on Broadway is huge…Chalk drawings projected on the floor of the stage floor (I’m thinking how beautiful the stage floor was for Secret Garden), special effects to have them jump into the paintings, colorful carousels horses, cute dancing penguins. Yeah, it’s expected, but isn’t that the point with a classic like Mary Poppins?!!!
So then we were both waiting for the big Uncle Albert number where they all fly and laugh wildly. It was non-existent. There was NO Uncle Albert! No happy laughing scene. This was one of the many changes. Not only did they leave things out, they added weird things that added nothing to the story. At one point mid-way through the show, Mary Poppins leaves the Banks family and they must replace her. Her replacement is “The Holy Terror”, “Miss Andrew”. She is pure evil, making them drink her own horrid version of medicine in a number called “Brimstone and Treacle”. My friend Kim pointed out that it was interesting they named her Miss Andrew considered our beloved Julie Andrews played M.P. in the movie. In the earlier Supercali..(etc.) number, the foursome visited Mrs. Corry who owns a magic sweet shop. They learn that their father had a mean nanny named Miss Andrew. Being raised by this monster & the fact that his own father ignored him has made him a cold man.
Other “low-lights”:
• When Mary flies in the 1st time, the backdrop is baby blue, so the wires are highly visible.
• No “Votes for Women” storyline to involve Mrs. Banks.
• No Admiral Boom bit where the family & staff has to batten down the hatches whenever he fires his cannon. (He’s in the musical, but pretty much a non-character.)
• When Mary first arrives and empties her carpet bag, the items were all collapsible. I mean, you could see several of them “pop-up” or expand. The toys don’t come to life in this scene. Instead…
• The toys come to life in a dream the children have after mistreating their toys. The music is creepy and scary, and so are the toys. Think “Chucky”. :-(
• The “Spoonful of Sugar” song was not in the nursery. It was in the kitchen after the children decided to take over and made a mess. The table/counter “cracked” in half and the shelves on the wall broke so the plates “fell”. Nothing really breaks. When Mary “fixes” everything, it’s like when a ride at Disneyland resets itself and the table goes back together and the shelves right themselves. Cheesy special effects.
• We see too much of the marital problems of Mr. & Mrs. Banks. As Kim put it, it was like we were going through marriage counseling with them, including Mrs. B. singing “Being Mrs. Banks”.
At intermission, I didn’t even want a program. But I did buy a cute umbrella ornament and a MP pin. OH! I have never, ever, had problems at a theater DURING INTERMISSION, IN THE LOBBY, with taking pictures. But I snapped one picture and TWO employees were all over me. They wanted me to surrender my camera. I explained I didn’t realize you couldn’t take pictures in the lobby. They said the issue was that I HAD a camera in my possesion, and if they know it, they must confiscate it. Kim jumped in at one point and asked if she could just give us a warning, and I promised I wouldn’t remove it from my purse. She eventually said OK, but you could tell she was really worried I wouldn’t comply and said she’d really get in trouble, yada, yada. Sheesh! It’s a lobby people!
There was one more highlight at the end when MP flew away. She flies right over the audience and from our 6th row of the Mezzanine, she was about 20 feet away. That was cool! She floated right up into the rafters & disappeared!
Kim initially felt bad that she was going without the kids, but after seeing it she was glad. I really wanted to like it, & I didn’t want to give a bad review. Really, if it didn’t have the Disney name on it, I could understand it being different. I probably wouldn’t have been thrilled, but I could’ve understood it. I can’t believe I’m saying this but...“Disney Productions, you disappointed.”
This is the "illegal" picture I took:
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