Warning! SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know, stop reading!
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:
Aneeeeeway, being primarily a walker, I hadn't done much training in the way of running, but decided to do some run/walk intervals, and I finished in 40:14, my best 5K time! If only I had run a bit more I could've done sub 40 minutes! For the 5K-ers, the rain stopped for most of the race, then poured again as soon as I finished.
Then it was off to getting our race packets & SHOPPING! There were several running skirt vendors, plus all the Disney Princess stuff, and OF COURSE meeting my “imaginary friends” from DisneyRunning.com (Many of us know one another from the “club” but have never met in person, and some family members think our friends online are imaginary.) 
We were there for about 5 hours! It was fun, but I hadn’t planned for this and ended up messing up my shoulders, neck, & back for the rest of the weekend from carrying a backpack that weighed about 20 lbs. Seriously. Another reality check on the age. 
After the 5K, Erica, Kelly & I headed over to the Polynesian for a good breakfast, then on to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). Tower of Terror, Aerosmith’s Rockin Rollercoaster, Chocolate shakes at the 50’s PrimeTime Café, Great Movie Ride, Grauman’s Chinese Theater (had to put my hands in Mickey’s prints)
We ate at Mama Melrose’s for our "carb load" dinner. The girls told the waiters it was my birthday so we got to celebrate that too! Soooo, it’s Saturday night before the big race. I’m already exhausted from the 3 hr. time change, slept about 6 hrs. Thurs. night, 4 hrs. Fri. night, and now we were also loosing another hour because it was Daylight Savings changeover time! We changed the hotel’s clock time & set the alarm for 3:00 AM. It went off at 2:00. Apparently the clocks reset themselves for DST, only we didn’t know that. Then Erica in her sleepy stupor kept hitting the snooze instead of shutting it off. She’s a deep sleeper. :-) I slept about 2.5 hrs., and by Sunday my neck & shoulders were really tight. We went to the food court for a quick bite, got on the bus & made it to the start line by 5:30 or 6:00. It was really cold (especially for this CA girl!), but all the DR people met up at the “R” tent and had fun waiting for the start. It was literally almost a full mile walk to the start (What were they thinking?) and there was one “last chance” porta-potty area, and then too bad. I don’t even want to tell you what some were doing. Let’s just say there’s a lot of swamp land out there! 
As with the 5K, there were characters everywhere, both the Disney ones, and runners dressed as characters.
The course took us through the Magic Kingdom at around miles 5-6 which was really fun. My eyes were darting all over the place trying to soak it all in and still keep moving. I HAD to stop for a few pictures…
Except for Magic Kingdom the course was a lot of open roads with trees, up and down on/off ramps with what I thought was a lot a camber, which is really hard on the joints. By Mile 10 my shoulders and neck were one big knot. I tried to massage my shoulders to work it out, but it hurt pretty bad. I was also feeling like a wet noodle…combo of not enough sleep, the humidity, and probably needing some nutrition.
I can't tell you how forced this smile was.
But we’re not done yet! After dinner it was off to the Magic Kingdom.
There was so much I wanted to see and so little time. I decided to head off on my own & see a few of the sites. Visited Mickey & Minnie at Mickey’s house and I HAD to go to the Carousel of Progress! I guess it’s the nostalgic thing, and since we don’t have it at Dland, I really enjoy it. I bought some fudge to take home to Dad, shopped a little more, then headed back to the hotel. In the morning, Erica, Kelly & I had breakfast at the hotel (Mickey waffles!) then Kelly & I had to head to the airport. 
