Mary Poppins Returns.” Sad Sack Michael, Whose Predica- I L I S T I C E X P I a L I D O C I O U S

Home , Angela Lansbury, A Spoonful of Sugar, Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Returns

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We won’t remember this soundtrack 54 years from now h e r e ’s a reason every comparing their hit “Let it Go” the movie. She’s too remote to lift one of us can pro- unfavorably to his output for the blanket of gloom inflicted by nounce “s u p e r c a l i f r a g - “Mary Poppins Returns.” sad sack Michael, whose predica- i l i s t i c e x p i a l i d o c i o u s . ” “You should be so lucky,”I ment could be resolved by magic I t’s no mere happen- thought to myself, recalling or a simple affidavit of lost shares. stanceT that we know the words to S h a i m a n ’s stream of similarly Blunt has a beautiful clear the musical numbers from “Mary sounding songs in the new movie. RE B E C CA voice, but not much range. She Po p p i n s ” — “A Spoonful of Sugar,” He wasn’t lucky at all. L. FORD told NPR’s Terry Gross she was “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” “L e t ’s Go Set during the depression of cast in the early stages of the Fly a Kite”—as well as we know the 1930s —the “Great Slump”to f i l m ’s development, and its songs “The Star-Spangled Banner.” the British — “Mary Poppins Re- Rebecca L. Ford is counsel to Scharf were written to accommodate her The score of the 1964 super- turns”picks up the story of Jane Banks Marmor LLC, and concentrates her range. This process must account nanny classic is unforgettable. The and Michael Banks as adults. Jane practice on complex litigation, compliance, for the movie’s lack of distinguish- board governance and specialized m ov i e’s star, Julie Andrews, had a (Emily Mortimer) is now a labor employment issues. She is the former able climactic numbers. big Broadway voice and each of activist and a frequent visitor to executive vice president for litigation and How did this happen even as its songs was musically distinct. the Banks’family home at 17 intellectual property at MGM. She can be Miranda, creator of “H a m i l t o n ,” Yet it is the music of “Mary Cherry Tree Lane, which is in- reached at [email protected]. stood in the wings? Indeed, the Poppins Returns”that is the habited by the recently widowed m o v i e ’s music briefly comes alive greatest disappointment of this Michael (Ben Whishaw) and his when Miranda delivers his signa- sequel, delivered 54 years after three young children. love interest. For a moment, we ture patter in a variety number. the original. M i c h ae l ’s been in a depression are terrified she may be matched Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury Director Rob Marshall, the multi- of his own since his wife’s death a with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Jack, and, of course, Dick Van Dyke Tony Award-nominated choreog- year earlier. He’s behind on his the cheerful lamplighter —s h e ’d also make brief and welcome ap- rapher, directed 2003’s Best Pic- home equity payments and, unless crush him like a praying mantis — p e a r a n c e s . ture Oscar-winner “C h i c a g o ”and he can find the stock certificates but Jack is handily passed off to “Mary Poppins Returns”is vi- 2 0 14 ’s film adaptation of Stephen for the Banks’bank shares, the Jane, with whom no sparks fly. sually sumptuous, particularly in S ondheim’s stage musical “I n t o dastardly Fidelity Fiduciary Bank M i r a n d a ’s Cockney accent is on scenes where the children and the Woods.” president, Mr. Wilkins (Colin par with that of Dick Van Dyke’s Mary travel through the bathtub The dark matter of these pre- Firth), will foreclose and evict. 1964 chimney sweep Bert. We into a color-saturated ocean and vious productions seems to have The family is in crisis. If only gave Van Dyke a pass because of in a sequence that combines live seeped into “Mary Poppins Re- Mary Poppins were here to set his frisson with Andrews and his action and hand-drawn animation, t u r n s ,”which was apparently made things right. contribution as a second tent-pole mirroring the racetrack mix in the without children or families in Emily Blunt’s prickly Poppins is star of the movie. original. mind, or any women leading those edgier than Julie Andrews’s w e e t - Deferential Jack, unlike Bert, Still, a Disney “Mary Poppins” aspects of development that deter- ly uptight caregiver, and Blunt is d o e s n ’t pretend to be Mary’s peer. will elicit expectations of lightness mine a movie’s shape and content. closer to the tart titular P.L. H e’s an earnest young man de- and joy —delivered perhaps by a In an interview with the Wall Travers novels’character on termined not to throw away his couple of Tin Pan Alley types at Street Journal, composer Marc which the films are based. shot. Jack’s good cheer resides out- an upright piano. Shaiman dissed “F ro z e n”c o m - Unlike Andrews, Blunt doesn’t side the Banks household, leaving But “Mary Poppins Returns”o f - posers Kristen and Robert Lopez, have anyone vaguely resembling a B l u n t ’s Mary Poppins alone to lift fers nothing to sing about.