THEATRE Copyright Lighting&Sound America February 2007 www.lightingandsoundamerica.com ALL PHOTOS: JOAN MARCUS mary poppins’ jolly new york holiday A West End musical is For a while, it looked like Mary has been cannily reworked for Poppins might be potential victim of American audiences; nowhere is this transatlantic phenomenon. this more apparent than in the rethought for Broadway When the stage version of the production’s scenery and lighting. beloved children’s stories (and The show’s creative personnel are Disney film) opened in at the Prince candid about the changes: “The first By: David Barbour Edward Theatre in London, it was production of a new musical is like a most assuredly a success, yet some runaway train; it’s a miracle if it gets Sometimes, it seems, musicals reviewers warned of trouble ahead. there at all,” says set designer Bob should be stamped with the It was best summed up by Ben Crowley; “this time, we made it warning, “Contents may shift during Brantley in The New York Times, better.” Lighting designer Howard handling.” Otherwise, how does one who wrote, “Sentimental yet sinister, Harrison adds, “We all feel much explain the way some of them lose the show is steeped in Jungian happier about it in New York.” their appeal en route from the West shadows, where an unhappy family End to Broadway (or vice versa)? festers and vengeful toys arise at The many faces of Mary Poppins For every global success (think night to attack the children who It’s not surprising that Mary Poppins Mamma Mia! or Phantom of the mishandle them. There is definitely should present such different faces Opera), there are many others that enchantment afoot, but it is not in London and New York. In fact, wilt during the transfer: Bombay always of a benevolent order.” Mary Poppins is a property that Dreams and Chitty Chitty Bang How to explain, then, the sunny, means different things to different Bang were greeted with indifference rainbow-colored entertainment that people—it depends on your age, in New York, while Movin’ Out and arrived on Broadway in November your nationality, and your ideas Contact failed to replicate their New to good reviews and bountiful box about children’s literature. The York triumphs in London. office? In this case, Mary Poppins character was conceived in a series February 2007 • Lighting&Sound America Crowley: “I’ve never put these arcane sources. no other Disney film has ever produced In the words of critic Michael so many standards—added an extra wallpaper on a set Feingold, “Travers’ Mary is sharp- touch of cozy comfort. Many Disney edged, plain, and often downright classics have been castigated for their before. I don’t get out impudent, a maternal disciplinarian disturbing elements; Mary Poppins is who is also, paradoxically, a giddy not one of them. Given this history, a the moldings catalog. escapist child. [She] sets the topsy- musical version of Mary Poppins could turvy Banks household in order, not turn out very differently depending on But I knew I had to by showering its four undisciplined which direction you went. children with the affection they’ve Reportedly, Travers hated the film force myself to do it this been lacking, but by endowing (although, surprisingly, she liked them, through her magic, with a Andrews’ performance); when, near the time, because there sense of awe at the mystery of life.” end of her life, she sold the theatrical The Walt Disney film drawn from rights, it was to Cameron Mackintosh, was no other way.” the Poppins books made apparently with the understanding that fundamental changes to Travers’ a stage musical would hew more work. The time frame was moved closely to her conception. Mackintosh, of books—really, collections of back from the ‘30s to 1910. The however, was well aware of the power short stories—by P. L. Travers. An number of Banks children was cut of the film and its score, and struck a actress-turned-poet with a steely, to two. A more sentimental co-production deal with Disney. When unconventional point of view, she narrative was imposed, in which Mary Poppins opened in the West End was a devotee of the Armenian Mary transforms the scattered, in 2004, it was something of a hybrid. mystic G. I. Gurdjieff and Sufi unhappy Banks family into a loving It retained most of the Shermans’ mysticism. Some literary critics family unit. As impersonated by songs, with new contributions from have written that Mary Poppins, a Julie Andrews, Mary was no longer George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. mysterious figure who appears and the vain and supercilious character Julian Fellowes’ book followed the disappears at will, causing envisioned by Travers; instead, she general outline of Bill Walsh and Don profound changes in the lives of became a warm, benevolent Da Gradi’s screenplay, but made those around her, is an embodiment presence. The addition of the significant alterations that tilted the of ideas drawn by Travers from Sherman Brothers’ classic score— material definitively towards Travers. For example, the musical delves far more deeply into the troubled marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Banks; the latter, a dizzily self-involved suffragette in the film, is now a retired actress who finds herself totally at sea in the domestic sphere. New characters are introduced from Travers’ books, including the bizarre shopkeeper Mrs. Corry; Neleus, a talking statue; and Miss Andrew, the terrifying, abusive nanny who haunted Mr. Banks’ childhood. The children, Jane and Michael Banks, are a rude and disorderly pair; in a new number, “Temper, Temper,” they are menaced by a set of murderous, life-sized toys. These changes were made in the spirit of grounding a whimsical family musical in a solid emotional reality, and to reintroduce some of Travers’ astringency. (Clearly, the feeling was a spoonful of lemon would help the sugar go down.) The result, to American eyes, had a distinct note of grimness. The color palette seemed dominated by wintry grays and a feeling of menace lurked in the atmosphere. The number “Jolly Holiday” (which cues the film’s Opposite: The "Jolly Holiday" number has gained vibrant color on Broadway. This page, left: The Banks' house interior is the most elaborate set in Crowley's design. www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • February 2007 THEATRE Above: With its skewed perspective, the audience’s point of view; sitting in The domicile in question is 17 setting for the bank where Mr. Banks works an orchestra seat, one finds oneself Cherry Tree Lane, home to the Banks is the most typical of Crowley's designs in staring downward from a great family. The libretto requires scenes the show. height, gazing up at towering set in Mrs. Banks’ study, as well as constructions, or staring at vistas the entrance hall, parlor, nursery, extended animation sequence) had a that stretch into infinity. Here, his kitchen, and a practical staircase—a sinister overtone, especially in a work is of a different order—more lot of scenery to depict separate sequence featuring a chorus of conventional perhaps, but lushly locations. In addition, many scenes, dancing Greco-Roman statues. One illustrative and full of alluring period including the beginning of the dance might reasonably wonder what details. Given the designer’s number “Step in Time,” are set on American audiences, raised on the unconventional sensibility, it may the roof. Also, says Crowley, “The film, might make of it all. surprise some that he was given the house had to be to be real or there In New York, the production has a Poppins assignment—then again, his would be no contrast with the story’s markedly different tone, largely due work with the musicals Aida and fantasy elements. The house to changes in the design and staging. Tarzan (he also directed the latter) represents the Banks family unit and Ashley Brown gives Mary Poppins a have made him a valuable member of what they will lose if Mr. Banks can’t mocking self-awareness that makes the Disney Theatricals team. pay the mortgage.” her more likable, and she has a Nevertheless, Crowley says, the The solution proved to be one of definite chemistry with Gavin Lee, project had “an anxious start. I knew Crowley’s more remarkable who plays Bert, her cockney consort. I had a very well-loved property to creations—a triple-decker Edwardian The more sinister sequences now take care of. I love the illustrations of dollhouse filled with naturalistic have a more tongue-in-cheek tone. Mary Shepard [who did the Poppins decorative details. The first floor And the design is generally more books].” Out of this anxiety, however, features Mr. Banks’ study at stage colorful, with additional visual came the beginnings of an approach: right and the parlor at stage left. On surprises. In this production, Travers’ “I said to Richard Eyre [the director], the second floor are two additional vision is very much present, but ‘It might be nice to illustrate the rooms (without floors). A two-story there’s also a more distinct note of show in my own style. I’ve never put staircase with a landing takes up the the Disney sensibility. Interestingly my own drawings onstage before.’ center. On top is the roof, which enough, the result is singular; Mary That proved to be the way in; the moves to reveal the nursery where Poppins now evokes the pleasures of entire show is drawn by me.” He Jane and Michael spend much of the pre-Andrew Lloyd Webber British adds that he studied the work of their time. book musical (think Oliver! or Half a Edwardian illustrators like Arthur This kind of naturalism is Sixpence) and it is all the better for it.