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Producer Cameron Mackintosh talks to Julia May about his ''secret weapon'' to get the nanny on stage.
When you think of Mary Poppins, what comes to mind? Perhaps it is Julie Andrews, the original English rose, floating down upon Cherry Tree Lane, holding her magical umbrella aloft. Or Bert, the chimney sweep, cartwheeling with his tiny minions across the London skyline. For most people, the story - be it in the books, the film or the stage show - is unmistakably British.
It may come as a surprise, then, that the world's favourite nanny was an Australian invention.
Pamela Travers, who wrote the Mary Poppins books in the 1930s, was a Queenslander. Born Helen Goff, she hailed from Maryborough, where she grew up above the bank managed by her father, an alcoholic who eventually lost his job. His death, when she was nine, marked Travers, and her work, for the rest of her life.
Travers became a journalist, writing for The Bulletin before moving to Britain aged 24. Mary Poppins was her first literary hit and she went on to write seven more books in the series.
In 1993 British super-producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh approached the notoriously crotchety Travers to attempt to gain the stage rights. The author, by then 93, made clear her distaste for the 1964 Disney film, stipulating that no Americans - including brothers Robert and Richard Sherman, who wrote the original soundtrack - were to work on the live version.
"She absolutely wanted to find out one thing: was I sweet-talking her into saying 'yes' in order to put the Disney show on stage," Mackintosh says. "But I think my knowledge of the books impressed her enough. She knew that I was really intrigued by the stories and I actually wanted the songs, the Disney songs, to serve this, not the other way around."
© Fairfax Media
