Put in a song, “A Spoonful Of Sugar”, that won’t leave your head for days,
add a flying nanny named Mary Poppins (Madeline Trumble), stir in a show
stopping chimney sweeper called Bert (Con O’Shea-Creal) and for the
icing on the cake put a cast of 30 on stage, aided by an orchestra led
by Daniel Bowling of 20 players, mainly local musicians, and have them
sing, dance and spell “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and you get
that Disney magic recipe co-produced with Cameron Macintosh.

Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman wrote the songs for the movie while George
Stiles and Anthony Drewe not only worked on original songs but added new
material making the ‘old’ songs sound fresh. The new score melds in
with the old one and includes “Anything Can Happen” , “Cherry Tree Lane”
and ‘Precision and Order”.

The cast including Madison Mullahey (who alternates performances with
Julianna Rigoglioso) as Jane and Eli Tokash (who alternates with Zachery
Mackiewicz) as Michael, the children of George (Ben Cherry) and
Winifred ( Elizabeth Broadhurst) play their roles with a lot of energy,
especially the children who have to dance, sing and act on the level of
the adults. As the house staff Tregoney Shepard and Blake Segal supply
the comic relief and Karen Murphy, as the Bird Woman, sweetly sings
“Feed The Birds”.

The book by Julian Fellowes is a little deeper and  darker  than the movie
was while the ever changing scenic and costume designs bring applause
from the audience. The original choreography really shines during the
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and the rousing encore number that
gets the audience clapping and the kids sitting in front of me
spelling! Talking about the children in the audience, they represented
about a quarter of the sell out crowd and were especially well behaved.

A few special words must be said about Con O’Shea-Creal who brought that
extra magic to the show with his singing, dancing, smiles as he takes us
through musical as part guide, part narrator but all out entertainer. I
don’t think there was a single member of the audience who wasn’t
mesmerized  by his tap dancing upside down on the ceiling of the stage,
in step, even more than watching Mary Poppins fly across that same
stage.

First Act; 1 hour and 18 minutes  Intermission; 17 minutes   Second Act; 1 hour and 5 minutes   Strobe lights, stage smoke

Next show at the Arsht Center;  The 25th Anniversary production of “Les Miserables” February 26-March