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Stellar performances take an old favourite to new heights, writes Elissa Blake.
Don’t like musicals? What about a play with music? The cast and creatives behind the blockbuster musical Mary Poppins believe the show has enough theatrical muscle to win over even the staunchest musical doubter as well as the more serious theatre patrons.
For the birds ... Matt Lee as Bert and Verity Hunt-Ballard as Mary; Sally-Anne Upton and Christopher Rickerby provide the comic relief.
"If you regularly go to the Sydney Theatre Company, you might be thinking Mary Poppins isn’t for me," actor Christopher Rickerby says. "But you just have to take one look at the cast. Nearly everyone has worked in straight plays and many have performed in Shakespeare productions. David Henry has even worked with Laurence Olivier."
Directed by Richard Eyre, the multi-award-winning British theatre and film director (Notes on a Scandal with Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench), Mary Poppins has the kind of cast that becomes a selling point in its own right.
Philip Quast, playing Mr Banks, a father who has lost touch with his family, has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and London’s Donmar Warehouse and has won three Olivier awards for best actor in a musical. Several of his English fans flew to Melbourne (twice) to see him perform in Poppins.
Marina Prior (Mrs Banks), Judi Connelli (Miss Andrew) and Debra Byrne (Bird Woman) are among the most acclaimed and experienced musical theatre stars in Australia. David Henry (Admiral Boom/Bank Chairman) did indeed work with Olivier and returns to the Australian stage after 40 years in British theatre, film and television.
Verity Hunt-Ballard, 29, a relatively unknown from Adelaide, has been hailed the best Mary of any production in the world, according to Eyre. Her co-star, former So You Think You Can Dance judge and musical theatre performer, Matt Lee, has astounded audiences as chimney sweep Bert, with some reporting he steals the show.
"There is such a body of work behind every single performer," says Rickerby, a National Institute of Dramatic Art-trained actor and singer who plays the goofy butler. "As a piece of theatre, Mary Poppins is really a play within a musical. It’s quite weighty – not frothy at all. I think that’s a big part of its success." Mary Poppins has been a smash in Melbourne, where it’s been playing at 100 per cent capacity for nine months. Insiders say it could have easily played the city for another year, with many repeat customers, but the Sydney dates were locked in.
The story, with its twin morals of anything can happen if you let it and always make time for your children, is founded on the books by Queensland-born P. L. Travers rather than the 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, although it does include songs from the film (including the Academy Award-winning Chim Chim Cher-ee) and five new ones. British choreographer Matthew Bourne is behind the spectacular musical numbers.
"I think a lot of parents are coming to the show with their kids because they remember the books and the film and they want their children to have that memory, too," says Sally-Anne Upton, who plays the brittle housekeeper, Mrs Brill.
"But when they come they are surprised by the depth of the show. People can relate to the Banks family struggle to make time for their children. But they’re also escaping for that three hours into complete magic."
Rickerby and Upton provide comic relief. "We’re like Laurel and Hardy," Rickerby says. "Whatever I touch goes wrong and she slaps me over the head."
"It’s a very vaudeville, slapstick routine," Upton says.
"Kids have never seen that in their lives before [and some grown-ups]. We’re getting people who have never been to the theatre before. They are amazed that real people can do all this on stage.
"Maybe this introduction will get them interested in other kinds of theatre, too."Lee says the show appeals to a wide demographic. The cast is aged between 10 and 72, as are many in the audience."There are a lot of other brilliant shows but few appeal to all ages like this one," he says. "Adults are reliving their childhoods and people are coming together to watch as a family. You should see the kids’ faces at the end when Mary flies over the audience. And the parents are sobbing. That’s so cool."
