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First it was a book, then a hit Disney movie, but can Mary Poppins still cast a spell as a stage musical? Tom Cardy was in Melbourne last week for the premiere, where he met Disney veteran songwriter Richard Sherman, who co-wrote all the classic songs from 'A Spoonful of sugar" to 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'
Disney has always had a knack of incorporating memorable music into its animated and live-action movies and Mary Poppins, released in 1964, is so popular it continues to produce multiple spoonfuls of money.
'Chim Chim Cheree', 'Feed the Birds', 'A Spoonful of Sugar' and 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' are known and recognized even by those who have never seen the film featuring Julie Andrews' dizzying performance as the umbrella-wielding flying uber-nanny. Like Dumbo, Snow White or Cinderella, the film has become a sacred part of the Disney pantheon. This means any talk of a Mary Poppins stage musical begs the question – can it deliver anything near the same magic?
At the Australian premiere in Melbourne last week the creators and promoters are, not surprisingly, keen to say that it will. They also have a track record, with the stage version already, including Broadway and London, seen by 4,2 million.
The day before the premiere, media got a preview of performances of 'Supercalifragilistexpialidocious', 'Chim Chim Cheree' and 'Step in Time' – one of the big ones for Dick Van Dyke in the film with fellow chimney sweeps. It was eye opening, not only for the intricate sets, dazzling costumes, breath-taking choreography and songs performed with gusto, but the fact the cast could, at the drop of Poppins' hat, perform each song twice in a row for the cameras. It's dexterity that the media, let alone the public, rarely get to see.
Afterwards a phalanx of reporters and camera crews surround the stars on stage. Most of the questions are to Australian singer Verity Hunt-Ballard – one of 650 wannabe Poppins who auditioned for the role in Australia and New Zealand, young performers Kurtis Papadinis, 10, and Hayley Edwards, 13, who play her charges Michael and Jane Banks, and Matt Lee as Bert – Van Dyke's role in the film – a musical theatre veteran and the model for the dancing penguin in animated feature Happy Feet.
"For me, personally it's a very exciting, slightly surreal and wonderful time," says Hunt-Ballard, still in costume, but slightly surreal as her clipped English vowels are replaced by her Aussie accent. "I just hope that I can do her justice… It's hard yakka, but it's wonderful."
Australia has a special connection to Mary Poppins. While one of the enduring attractions of the film and the seven books by author PL (Pamela) Travers is its particular "Englishness", Travers as born in Queensland in 1899. She was an actor, dancer and journalist before her success with Poppins in 1934.
The Melbourne premiere featured the other big gun "creatives" of the stage musical – including producer and co-creator Cameron Mackintosh, one of the most successful musical producers of the past 30 years, whose big break was Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. Also on hand was Disney Theatrical Group head Thomas Schumacher, who has had a hand in transforming many Disney movies to the stage including The Lion Ling and High School Musical.
But one of the surprise guests was Richard Sherman. It was Sherman and his brother Robert who wrote all the songs for Mary Poppins, as well as other Disney classics including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Jungle Book. They also wrote the Disneyland theme song It's a Small World After All.
At 81 he's still sharp, animated and there's a twinkle in his eyes as he reminisces. Not only did the brothers deal directly with Walt Disney himself, but they also had to deal with Travers, who didn't like the movie.
"Oh, God help me, - jokes Sherman, remembering his encounters with the author - Mrs Travers came in and I guess her entire contribution to what we were doing with her books can be summed up in one word – no".
"She said no to practically every idea we had and Walt loved our ideas. Mrs Travers was very obstinate about things. One day I had a long chat with her and I said, "Pamela, you've got to understand something – we will never, ever touch a word of your books. Your books will always be there, the stories will always be there, exactly the way you've written them. Every single illustration by Mary Shepard is going to be exactly the way they are. We are inspired by your books to tell a story from the film and to do that we have to come up with the story line. We have to say these things."
"She listened and didn't like the idea. But she couldn't say no because Walt had made an offer she couldn't refuse. He didn't cut any horses' heads, but he made her story consultant. She did chat with us for quite a bit and every word was taken down."
In the stage musical episodes are taken from all seven books, but the Disney film was based on the first. Walt Disney had a big part to play – "We more or less listened to Walt. It was Walt's dream to do it." Says Sherman. But the Sherman brothers' involvement went beyond the simple assumption that they wrote only the songs. Their decisions had a big impact on the storyline. It included changing the setting from the 1930s to pre-World Ware I – a time when Vaudeville music, which the brothers loved, was at its height.
Sherman cites the example of 'Feed the Birds' which they saw as symbolic of Poppins expressing her love for the Banks children.
"At the time we thought, 'how do we say that?'. We don't want to come out and say, 'I love you, kids'. We're songwriters, we can do better than that. What can be better than 'feed the birds/tuppence a bag'. It only takes tuppence – nothing – to be kind, to give that little extra something.
"I remember when we first played that first song to Walt he said, 'that's what the whole picture's about'. He dug it. It was that day when we had this meeting and we told him all these ideas and he said, 'how would you like to work here?'
"That was the day he put us on staff. Not just to write Poppins, but to write his music for 10 years. We wrote practically everything that came out of the Disney studios and then when he passed on it was a little different."
Sherman was himself a consultant for the musical, which he describes as "a masterful job". He says people are intrigued by what the stage version can deliver.
"They're hearing a lot of songs that they knew and grew up with and then they're hearing new things and they're seeing adventures that didn't quite happen in the film and I think that's great. And why shouldn't you?
"You don't want to see a rehash of the movie. You could never do what the movie did. The movie had animation, it had magical things and close-ups. All the things you can do in a movie but not on the stage. But they've done new and inventive things to make their interpretation happen and I was rather impressed with what they came up with".
One of those who mad it happen was British actor and screenwriter Julian Fellowes, best known for The Young Victoria and most recently for The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Mary Poppins is Fellowes' first musical. It came out of the blue with a call from Mackintosh while he was on the set of television series Monarch of the Glen.
"When I got home I was talking about it to my wife and sehe didn't even know there were books. That was the first moment that I realized that this is a subject with two parents.
"The original books are great and Pamela Travers is great. But the film is also great. There are many, many fans of the film and for them Julie Andrews is Mary Poppins and that's it really, that's quite a challenge. You are trying to marry together two sources and you don't want to be disappointing to the supporters and fans of either, so I hope we brought it off."
Fellowes can rest easy based on the opening night audience, who gave a long standing ovation, and good reviews.
The sets, which include a giant fold-out style picture book illustration of a house transformed into a 3-D version, and Poppins flying with umbrella over the audience, are more powerful than if depicted in film.
But again, it was the Sherman brothers' songs that stole the show. Says Sherman: "Bob and I really really dug to come up with original things. To sing truths, but to sing them in an original way. To do a tough job – if you have a good attitude – makes it a lot easier. If you say 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down', it's a little mysterious. But it sure makes a difference, doesn't it?"
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited
