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selfindulgentmusicalreviews · 1 year

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Mary Poppins - Brisbane 2022 - QPAC

Hello Musical Theatre fans!

So 07/12/22 clocked in as my third viewing of Mary Poppins, and unfortunately seeing shows more than once in the run has started to become a very expensive habit. Strangely though, all three reasons had a different purpose, which usually isn’t the case (and rather, I just go because I enjoyed it so much I wanted to see it again.)

The first was due to some complimentary seats; so why not?

The second was the planned, intended viewing with the family.

And the third? Well. We found out one of our favourite ensemble members was playing Bert, so we booked some last minute tickets (literally 6 hours before the show started) and went!

(And, as of Jan 2023, I ended up seeing it a FOURTH time, due to a lottery win. That adventure isn't included here but it didn't change much!)

The Story

Mary Poppins is an excellent show. I went and saw it when it came to Brisbane for the first time in 2012. I have to admit, I wasn’t as impressed back then and came away not really wanting to go this time, but through either age/maturity or just a different cast/different production, I left with a completely different review of it.

The story of Mary Poppins is the same as it always has been - two misunderstood children with parents who have no time for them, so they act out and escape from their boring, strict nannies. In an attempt to open their parents’ eyes, a mysterious, magical nanny comes down from the sky to teach everyone a lesson. A special mention to Bert, the guardian angel jack-of-all-trades that always appears when the kids need him most.

The musical adaptation takes a slightly different turn than the movie, I can only assume for staging and pacing purposes. There are several new songs, and some of the songs from the movie have been changed, and in my opinion, some of the character arcs are a little more blurry. In the movie, the children are quite soft and don’t require such a firm hand to guide them (despite their letter going on about their pranks). They immediately love Mary, and follow her every request. It’s only on Mary’s day off when they’re with their father do things turn upside down. In comparison, the musical children are petulant trouble makers with strong personalities, who are dubious about Mary Poppins even after her introduction (that whole, “we hope you’ll stay” in ‘Practically Perfect’ is definitely sarcastic). They’re still making trouble despite Mary's influence; causing a mess in the kitchen for poor Robertson Ay. It’s definitely better consistency for their characters, given how much the other nannies label them as terrors. Luckily, with strong children, the stage role of Mary is equally as strong and no-nonsense to match.

Jane and Michael get their own miniature character arcs, though I find Jane’s is a little harder to follow. Michael learns to not judge a book by its cover when he feeds the birds, but Jane doesn’t quite come around at the same time and is still afraid of the bird woman. She eventually gets a throwaway line at the end about learning to look beyond what’s at the end of her nose, but we never see it truly resolved, and they’re still fairly judgy about how dirty Bert is as a chimney sweep.

George Banks is, of course, the man of the show with the most change, as intended by the original source material. We find that his lifestyle is deeply rooted in the trauma he faced as a young child - seeing his parents barely once a week and never being kissed goodnight, and forever being molded by brimstone and treacle (which after a quick google, I’m surprised George even made it to adulthood!)

One thing I probably don’t agree with and would love to see a rewrite for is the character of Winifred Banks. In the movie she’s a strong-willed suffragette, fighting for women’s rights (but is unable to stand up to or for her husband at home). In the musical, she’s a former actress that left the stage to host dinner parties and luncheons for rich ‘friends’ she doesn’t really know, which is the reason why she can’t look after the children (and ‘all the best people have nannies’.) At the end of the musical, she decides that the acting life isn’t for her, and that she’d rather just concentrate on being a mother.

Personally, I would love to see her in that suffragette role once more, and like Mr Banks, come to the conclusion that she needs to balance her lifestyle and the parenting with George. In the movie, watching her march and stand up for women, but be completely incapable of standing up to her husband was a fun juxtaposition (though in the movie, this was never resolved either.)

Upon first watching, I found at least one of the musical numbers was a little hard to piece together from a story perspective; specifically ‘Playing the Game.’ To be truthful, I’m still not sure how this song fits; Valentine is broken because the children are fighting over him, and after this (horrifically haunting) number about respecting your toys, Mary Poppins leaves because she can’t help children who won’t listen. While totally relatable and a generally good message, what does this have to do with anything that’s happened so far, and why does THIS particular issue prompt Mary Poppins to leave? The children seem to be following up to this point, and aren’t really resisting her lessons.

Some minor gripes that definitely don’t detract, but just make me laugh; I’m not sure how okay I am with the ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ essentially being a drug that gets them all high enough to enjoy cleaning. The rest of the show tends to rely highly on metaphor but this one feels a bit off.

Also, the reason for them being swept up the chimney sweep to meet Bert and the other sweeps will forever make me laugh with how random of an event it is, with no explanation or information about why it happens.

I suppose, just like Mary, the show makes a habit of never explaining anything ;)

Musical Numbers and Staging

Mary Poppins incorporates well loved songs from the movie with a host of great new songs that fit the pacing of the stage play. I always find myself with ‘Practically Perfect’ in my head as I leave the theatre (and for days afterwards).

Feed the Birds is always a standout in my mind; a hauntingly beautiful song on a dim stage, with beautiful harmonies from Mary and the bird woman. It never fails to give me goosebumps!

The choreography is incredible, especially Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - I always enjoy watching the cast rattle off letter after letter, and I’m pleased that we get to see it once more at the end.

One part I always love to watch is how quickly the park changes during ‘Jolly Holiday’ - from quiet browns and greys and blacks to suddenly brilliant greens and reds and purples (Colours of my Life, anyone?) as the lights come up always has me staring in childlike wonder, marvelling at just how incredible the stage can be. It’s magic moments like those that really make me love the theatre.

The costuming is brilliant, although if I have one criticism I would have loved to see Jane and Michael’s costumes start to brighten as the musical goes on. They wear greys and browns for the majority of the time (except in Jolly Holiday), but as they start to become happier, better adjusted children, it wouldn’t have hurt to see some of the colour leaching into their clothing as well.

Leads

For the 2022 run of Mary Poppins, we had Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers as our Mary and Bert. I saw them for two of the three shows I’ve seen, and their portrayal of these characters was amazing. Stephanie’s vocals and Jack’s charm really brought out the magic of these two characters, and their chemistry on stage was a delight to watch. I haven’t seen either of them in any other productions (I don’t think), so it was nice to see some new faces.

I’ve also got to give a special mention to Genevieve Kingsford and Patrick Whitbread, the understudies we saw on the 07/12/22. Patrick Whitbread was the ensemble member we were there specifically to see, and while I’m completely biased, Patrick played an incredible Bert to Genevieve’s Mary.

I always love getting to see multiple people in the same roles; they each bring something just a little different that usually offers unique perspectives.

Patrick’s Bert is goofy. He’s a sweet, lovable dork who pulls faces while he dances, and his portrayal reminded me a lot more of the Dick Van Dyke version of Bert from the movie. Jack plays a much more suave Bert, which is no less endearing and exciting to watch. Genevieve’s Mary was softer than Stephanie’s prim and proper nanny, but that softness didn’t diminish the way she commanded the stage.

Tom Wren was excellent all three nights - he has such a great smile and it’s such a standout when he goes from always frowning and scowling to these brilliant pearly grins. I absolutely loved Lucy Maunder’s performance; for the character she plays, she does it incredibly well and her vocals during “Being Mr Banks” are absolutely beautiful.

The children are always fantastic; I got to see three (four!) different sets, and all of them were equally amazing.

Ensemble

As per usual when I go to the theatre, I like to pay close attention to the ensemble, and see if I’ve seen any of them in any former productions. Some of them just end up sticking and I try to make sure I watch out for them during the shows. Due to the costuming and make-up usually covering faces and hair, I found it incredibly difficult to single them out as individuals on this show.

There were only a couple of them this time;

Hayden Baum, Ellie Nunan and Taylor Scanlan I’ve followed through numerous Cats productions.

Andrew Broadbent - we saw him in Book of Mormon; I’ve been trying to chase him down at Stage Door to no avail; he’s far too sneaky. I enjoyed watching him as Von Hussler and the Policemen - it’s always just nice to see familiar faces. As of the fourth viewing, I managed to get to Andrew at Stage Door! He was the kindest, most polite person I've ever met and I LOVE him very much.

Thanks for reading!

#QPAC #Queensland Performing Arts Centre #Musical Theatre #Musical Theatre Review #Queensland Musical Theatre #Mary Poppins #Stefanie Jones #Jack Chambers #Genevieve Kingsford #Patrick Whitbread #Tom Wren #Lucy Maunder #Hayden Baum #Ellie Nunan #Taylor Scanlan #Andrew Broadbent #Michael Cassel #Michael Cassel Group #Australian Musical Theatre

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direwolfrules · 1 year

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Star Wars Rebels + Star Trek: Voyager AU Part 2

So just some random things for this AU:

Kallus only leaves the aeroponics bay for the purposes of betting on relationships. Biggest J/C shipper on the ship, just beating Chakotay himself. He absolutely uses Zeb’s replicator rations for his bets, which Zeb allows because he’s a) not using them and b) glad that something is getting his boyfriend away from the fertilizer fumes for a few hours. Plus Zeb ships it too, it kinda reminds him of his first few weeks on the Ghost when Hera and Kanan tried to hide their relationship.

When Resolutions happens Kallus is absolutely insufferable. Imagine being a J/C shipper and only knowing that the Captain and Commander spent several days alone on a planet and came back with even more romantic tension. What happened on the planet Captain? Commander? I’m not saying that if Kallus found out about the bathtub that he’d have a stroke, but I’m also not not saying it.

Kallus also spends his time trying to get various crew members together. The Delaney sisters and their forays into the dating world are always entertaining. Tom and B'Elanna have that will they won't they tension that is just so delicious. Ensigns Bennet and Macormak though, they're his second favorite. He loves those oblivious idiots so much. Especially after Macormak keeps Zeb from running off ahead during a fight with the Kazon. So when Bennet dies, well, it shatters Kallus a little.

Hera and Samantha Wildman occasionally have girls nights. Those nights either Kanan takes all parenting duties (like Hera does when Kanan wants to hang out with his dad friends) or Zeb or Neelix watch both Jacen and Naomi Wildman so Kanan can also get some time away. Less often Ezra and Sabine watch the youngest Spectre, because they’re helpless in the face of Jacen’s lothpuppy eyes. One time Captain Janeway watched both kids and long story short both children came back with tiny command uniforms and breathe that smelled suspiciously like coffee.

Sabine and Ezra are both younger than the rest of the Voyager crew (Harry’s only older than Sabine by about a year but he’s clinging to that like a child clutching their safety blanket) excluding the literal infants. They’re basically the babies of the Voyager family, and the crew talks about them accordingly. More than once they've gotten separated from their fellow crew on shore leave causing Tom to run up to the local authorities and put out a missing child alert. No one (openly) finds this amusing except Tom.

Sabine figures out how to replicate beskar right before they encounter the Borg. Sabine hates the Borg. She hates them as a concept, hates them as a reality, just hates them. There's just something about an enemy that's able to so completely strip you of your personality, your individuality, that activates the primal fear part of her brain. Her brief mental debate if she should use her knowledge of beskar replication for the crew (it's sacred and not meant for outsiders) ends the first time she sees a crew member breakdown remembering Wolf 359 (I am making one of the background crew a Wolf 359 survivor, sue me). Voyager's crew has become family and what is beskar for if not to protect family?

Voyager gets beskar hull plates and bulkheads.

Tuvok, Ayala, and Joe Carey give Kanan advice on how to be a good dad. Naturally, it's all correct, yet they also all contradict each other. Tuvok's advice (based on what to do with telepathic Vulcan babies) actually works really well, which strengthens the friend part of his and Kanan's frenemies dynamic.

Ezra and Kanan (and to a lesser extent baby Jacen) set Q’s teeth on edge whenever he shows up. Unfortunately, this just seems to make Q show up more often. The Q Continuum has a love-hate relationship with Force sensitives because they’re living reminders of three Q who ran off to a Galaxy Far Far Away, decided to live as a creepy family, and gave some mortals phenomenal powers. No one wants to be reminded of their weird relatives.

I just want to say that at one point thanks to Q Hondo Ohnaka and Lwaxana Troi are on the ship at the same time. There is a considerable amount of chaos, fire, and firey chaos.

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