Mary Poppins Festival Theatre Edinburgh 25th January 2025 Review
Mary Poppins is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh until Sat 15 February but, as it was last time that this show was in Edinburgh (April 2016), tickets are not surprisingly selling fast for this show.
As far as stage musicals go, this Cameron Mackintosh and Disney production is probably as big as they come. Behind this impressive on stage production there is a huge team of talent, and they have obviously chosen some the best of the best in their respective areas of expertise to be part of this show. This is a large budget stage spectacle and every small detail has obviously been taken into consideration at every stage of this production.
This show adapts for the role of the magical nanny both from the Australian-British writer PL Travers' books (there were 8 in total) and the classic Walt Disney film. It is apt then that for this production, the two lead roles of Mary Poppins and Bert the Chimney Sweep (one of his many jobs it seems) are performed by two Australians, Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers, and together they are a great team. There is also that little bit of mystery in this script hinting that there may be far more to Mary Poppins and Bert than we think and that neither might be exactly who they say they are.
At its heart, Mary Poppins is a children’s show that takes the audience on a magical mystery tour (long before the Beatles took us all on one) that tells its story with classic stage musical song and dance routines. Both Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers not only have the talent to make all of this look effortless, but also the dramatic and often very light comedy skills for other scenes in this show.
There are simply no weak links in any of the casting here, but a special mention needs to go to Michael D. Xavier (George Banks) and Lucie-Mae Sumner (Winifred Banks) for their roles as the children's parents and to Rosemary Ashe as the cook of the house, Mrs Brill.
There are as you would expect a few children in the respective roles of Jane and Michael Banks and I am sure that every one of them will have been chosen because they are just so good at what they do. For this show Olaya Martinez Cambon and Oscar McCulloch gave fine performances in what are very demanding roles for any person of any age to perform.
Richard Eyre (director), Matthew Bourne (co-director and choreographer), and Stephen Mear (co-choreographer) have created here a visual wonderland that keeps many of the much loved elements of the book and classic film whilst also seamlessly fusing new ideas into this show. Many of the classic original songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman are still here, and new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe almost magically fall perfectly into place with them.
Many of the songs in this show have become so familiar to everyone that they need no introduction, but just to reassure everyone, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “ A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Chim, Chim, Cher-ee”” are still a very big part of this Mary Poppins. For some reason though, one of my favourites from the film has always been the often overlooked “Feed The Birds (Tuppence a Bag)” and Patti Boulaye as Bird Woman gives us a touching performance of this song here.
There are many surprises in this show ranging from classic stage show magic to impressive cutting edge technical wizardry, but I am not going to tell you about any of them as this show should be a surprise to anyone going to it.
There is also a second sub-plot running throughout the main story and its message to all of us is never to let go of that inner child within us all, and a show like this is perfect for never letting any of us forget that.
This review is for the 2.30pm matinee production, as the Friday evening show was cancelled due to the storm that was sweeping across Edinburgh and much of Scotland and at a running time of a little under three hours (including interval), it is a tribute to the cast and everyone involved in this show (including the Festival Theatre staff) that this show not only went ahead, but that everything will go ahead again in a few hours for the evening show at 7.30pm.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
As far as stage musicals go, this Cameron Mackintosh and Disney production is probably as big as they come. Behind this impressive on stage production there is a huge team of talent, and they have obviously chosen some the best of the best in their respective areas of expertise to be part of this show. This is a large budget stage spectacle and every small detail has obviously been taken into consideration at every stage of this production.
This show adapts for the role of the magical nanny both from the Australian-British writer PL Travers' books (there were 8 in total) and the classic Walt Disney film. It is apt then that for this production, the two lead roles of Mary Poppins and Bert the Chimney Sweep (one of his many jobs it seems) are performed by two Australians, Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers, and together they are a great team. There is also that little bit of mystery in this script hinting that there may be far more to Mary Poppins and Bert than we think and that neither might be exactly who they say they are.
At its heart, Mary Poppins is a children’s show that takes the audience on a magical mystery tour (long before the Beatles took us all on one) that tells its story with classic stage musical song and dance routines. Both Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers not only have the talent to make all of this look effortless, but also the dramatic and often very light comedy skills for other scenes in this show.
There are simply no weak links in any of the casting here, but a special mention needs to go to Michael D. Xavier (George Banks) and Lucie-Mae Sumner (Winifred Banks) for their roles as the children's parents and to Rosemary Ashe as the cook of the house, Mrs Brill.
There are as you would expect a few children in the respective roles of Jane and Michael Banks and I am sure that every one of them will have been chosen because they are just so good at what they do. For this show Olaya Martinez Cambon and Oscar McCulloch gave fine performances in what are very demanding roles for any person of any age to perform.
Richard Eyre (director), Matthew Bourne (co-director and choreographer), and Stephen Mear (co-choreographer) have created here a visual wonderland that keeps many of the much loved elements of the book and classic film whilst also seamlessly fusing new ideas into this show. Many of the classic original songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman are still here, and new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe almost magically fall perfectly into place with them.
Many of the songs in this show have become so familiar to everyone that they need no introduction, but just to reassure everyone, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “ A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Chim, Chim, Cher-ee”” are still a very big part of this Mary Poppins. For some reason though, one of my favourites from the film has always been the often overlooked “Feed The Birds (Tuppence a Bag)” and Patti Boulaye as Bird Woman gives us a touching performance of this song here.
There are many surprises in this show ranging from classic stage show magic to impressive cutting edge technical wizardry, but I am not going to tell you about any of them as this show should be a surprise to anyone going to it.
There is also a second sub-plot running throughout the main story and its message to all of us is never to let go of that inner child within us all, and a show like this is perfect for never letting any of us forget that.
This review is for the 2.30pm matinee production, as the Friday evening show was cancelled due to the storm that was sweeping across Edinburgh and much of Scotland and at a running time of a little under three hours (including interval), it is a tribute to the cast and everyone involved in this show (including the Festival Theatre staff) that this show not only went ahead, but that everything will go ahead again in a few hours for the evening show at 7.30pm.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com