Okay, I will not be able to watch this when it happens, but this news still makes me so stupidly excited. I love Laura's Mary Poppins first and foremost (sorry Julie, and don't hit me, joeytheteapot), thus I am so so so glad that she's getting to revisit the role.

Laura’s Poppin onto Broadway

Laura Michelle Kelly, the original stage Mary Poppins, will soon be ladling spoonfuls of sugar over Broadway.

The award-winning actress has been rehearsing with director Richard Eyre in New York. She will resume the famous nanny role on October 12 for a limited run.

Laura Michelle created Mary five years ago at the Prince Edward Theatre, London after try-outs in Bristol.

She won rave reviews for her crisp interpretation of the woman who swoops into Cherry Tree Lane to care for the Banks children. She was based more on the character as written by P.L. Travers than in the movie version with Julie Andrews.

When the time came to open on Broadway, Laura Michelle didn’t go with it. There were rumours of some terrible backstage row involving Laura Michelle and Cameron Mackintosh, who produced the show jointly with Disney, but no one can actually remember what the falling-out was all about.

( Rest of article. )

SOURCE

The bit about the row with Cameron MacKintosh (if true) does explain why Laura hasn't reprised the role when the other Marys (Scarlett, Lisa, Ashley) have crossed productions all over the place.

After waiting for over a year, Anything Can Happen If You Let It aka the "Guide" to Mary Poppins' journey from book to screen to stage finally arrived at my door step.

And boy, is it shiny.

That's actually a very mild report. What actually happened when I opened the box (and saw what it looked like) is far too embarrassing to get into, except that my ickle cousins whom I'm babysitting have probably lost what little respect that have for me.

( Pictures! )

I'm a teensy weensy bit disappointed because it focuses a lot more on the Broadway production instead of the original London production (Ashley Brown gets to be on the cover, what), but I'm guessing that when the London production was developed, they didn't expect the show to be that successful, let alone guess that the process would be documented in book form. This book was originally announced before the Broadway show debuted, so I reckon that they pushed back the publishing date to after the Broadway show premiered so to get as much info and pictures as they could.

I'll get to actually reading the damn thing in a bit. Hee.

Gyah. This is the first Saturday in what feels like forever where I've been able to just sit around the house and do nothing. Lots of stuff has been happening, what with the massive end-of-year holiday season, my trip to visit my parents, my job transfer (corporate ladder, here I come!), and generally living up to my resolution on getting fit and being social (housewarmings: 1, weddings: 3, social lunches/dinners: GAJILLION). It's starting to feel eerily like I'm getting a life, but what would I do with it once I get it?

My wishlist is growing steadily, which is problematic because I've got another holiday lined up in March where my mates and I are going to Singapore to watch We Will Rock You, which will make it my sixth time watching the show, but the first one where I'm not watching it at the Dominion Theatre. I just know that once I step into the S'pore HMV store I'll go berserk, like I did the last time where I got all the My Little Pony series DVDs I could get my hands on, among other things.

On said wishlist are a crapload of DVDs to add to my monster DVD collection. It's seriously getting ridiculous, to the point where every weekend we go bowling, I end up detouring to the nearby DVD store and making a purchase, not for something on my wishlist, but for movies I decide to get just in case I happen to get the urge to watch it. WTF, self?

Non-DVD stuff on my wishlist are Captain Wentworth's Diary, Mr. Darcy's Diary, Legally Blonde: The Musical OBC, Xanadu: The Musical OBC, Young Frankenstein: The Musical OBC, The Little Mermaid: The Musical OBC and Wicked: The Musical German Cast. What? I like my shiny.

The original Mary Poppins production (i.e. London) closed today, which makes me a sad panda, and there's been a bunch of negative reviews of The Little Mermaid which is completely unsurprising. I confess, said negative reviews fill me with glee, which on some level makes me a bad fan, but there's a reason for that, which I might explain at length another time.

Barely two weeks after I last watched the show, it's been announced that the London production of Mary Poppins is closing. Upon first reading that, I was v. sad, as people usually are when a musical they love is going to pack up and leave, but upon second glance, three years is a long time for a musical as intricate and elaborate as this to keep going. Among all the big-name musicals that debuted in 2004 alongside Mary Poppins, she survived the longest, so that at least is some consolation.

I think I have more to say on this, especially on the three Marys and two Berts that gave me such wonderful memories, but right now I have to go watch PotC: At World's End a mere second time.

I'm being very naughty and using the internet at work to post to lj when I'm supposed to be working. But it's not my fault, I've been deprived of the internet at home since the phone lines died last weekend (water creeped into the cables, short-circuits, sizzle-kaput!) and this is the only chance I get to briefly go through my f-list and emails, although I can only do it by stealth surfing when no one's watching.

Anyway, I finally got my hands on four of the eight Mary Poppins books and I'm positively devouring them. Book!Mary is everything movie!Mary isn't: she's snarky, snappish, mean and has the ego the size of Cherry Tree Lane. And I love her. Now that I've gotten to know book!Mary, I understand completely what Laura Michelle Kelly was going for in her potrayal of stage!Mary. She got it; understood was Mary Poppins was about, and brought together the softness of the movie and the twisted charm of the books into a performance as polished as a diamond: beautiful and precious, but also cold and sharp.

Also, someone told me that in the book-verse there isn't any Mary/Bert. Hah, they lied. It's very brief, but it's there. Mary/Bert OTP! ♥

I suppose it was inevitable.

maryandbert

If I didn't make it, someone else would have. :D The layout needs a banner and plenty of tweaking, but I'll get to that later, when I'm at home and in access of my photoshop program.

I'll be posting my various random Mary/Bert stuff there so not to clutter up this journal, but I think I'll cross-post every once in a while. (I haven't really thought about this yet, mmm.)

+++

I'm counting down the days until I get booted from youtube for posting up clips that ain't mine. I've noticed that almost all the Wicked and Sakura Taisen clips have been removed, so I'm guessing that it's only a matter of time. XD

This youtube clip of the Broadway cast performing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was linked up to in marypoppinsbway.

Conclusions:

• The choreography is 95% the same as the West End version. Huh.


• ♥ ♥ ♥ Gavin Lee ♥ ♥ ♥


• Ashley Brown has the right amount of charm for the role, but her accent needs a lot of work. Or maybe that doesn't really matter, because American audiences won't notice anyway. Tee hee.

Youtube, you have finally come through for me! Months ago I'd gone searching around Youtube for clips from the original West End cast of Mary Poppins, but turned up empty-handed. Yesterday, by chance, I stumbled upon one clip, which naturallly lead to my frantically searching for others clips and finding them.

THIS IS ME FILLED WITH RAW GLEE.

Now, direct linkage for those who don't want to search!

Warning: Massive spoilers. Anyone who's planning to watch this show or the Broadway version and doesn't want to have some of the stage trickery spoiled for them, don't watch these. (Bookmark them and come back later! ^_^)

Practically Perfect - Mary Poppins' introductory song. This was the song that set the tone for the show the first time for me, because this Mary is more embracing of her cheekiness than Julie Andrews' version and people are expecting A Spoonful of Sugar but get this instead.

Three of the four times I watched the show, I got stall seats, very near the stage. So, at the end of this song, when Laura hits that high note, its power just hit me right in the gut, and without the aid of speaker amplification (for they sucketh in the Prince Edward Theatre, seriously).

( More linkage under the cut, in chronological order. )

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I opened the Broadway.com website today and was greeted with a picture of Ashley Brown as Mary Poppins and Gavin Lee as Bert.

GLEE!

I'm so excited it's not funny... and I'm not even going to see the show. =_=

If there's anyone on my friendlist who is going to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, I will pay you to buy and post to me a souvenir brochure and playbill.

Gleeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Finally, some casting news for the Broadway production!

Gavin Lee is going to re-create the role of Bert in the Broadway production. Omg Gavin Gavin Gavin! <3<3<3 Although he's repeating his role, they had better have a Broadway cast recording. I'm just buzzing with excitement, because this means that there'll be more coverage of his performance, seeing that Broadway gets more public exposure than West End. Pictures! Interviews! Video clips! Wheeeee!

I was a little surprised about Ashley Brown, though. She feels much younger than Laura Michelle Kelly, but the stage production's attitude towards Mary is that she's ageless, so it makes sense. Personality-wise, Ashley's perfect right down to the sparkle in her eye.

Gavin! I predict that following the debut of the show, Gavin will get his own set of fangirls, which will cause those of us who saw him in London first to go, "Ha!"

Been busy. And cold. But mostly busy, doing stuff like shopping, hanging out with my peeps and getting my NaNoWriMo project on the way. I'm still behind schedule on that last one, though. Eeek!

12,473 / 50,000 (24.9%)

I also had my last romp through West End, watching:

( The Producers. )

( Les Miserables. )

( Mary Poppins. )

Anyone who's curious to see the London cast of Mary Poppins, check this out. It's a montage of clips from the show and interviews with the actors. This site also has some wonderful clips of Practically Perfect and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from the BBC Children in Need performances, just go to the media section.

Totally off-topic, but during my mad downloading binge of songs from musicals, I found this. It's Jodi Benson singing I Got Rhythm in the Broadway cast recording of Crazy For You. Much love.

I have three days to empty out my refrigerator, and then it's moving day!

The Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary Bonus DVD rocks so much. Stories from Richard Sherman, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke! Behind-the-scenes footage! Premiere footage! Publicity stills! Incredibly well-crafted overlapping special effects before-and-after shots! *loves* I sincerely hope the Little Mermaid DVD will help me achieve such giddy joy this time next year.

In related news, there's a cast change for the stage version over at the Prince Edward Theatre this weekend. Laura Michelle Kelly (whom I still say looks eerily like Idina Menzel) is leaving and will be replaced by Scarlet Strallen. From what I've read nearly everyone is leaving except for Gavin (thank goodness). And because I am apparently insane, I'm plotting to watch the show one more time with the new cast before I have to leave London for good. Heh heh.

It also helps that I found the cable for my digital camera.

( Cut for two images. )

Our phone line is being disconnected at the end of this week, so I'm trying to get as much internet-related stuff done as possible beforehand. This includes eight slash-em reviews (eight? oh my) and a review of the Mary Poppins stage show for Extraordinary Things. Whoop.

I have a new distraction project. Tee hee.

I'm making a webpage roughly entitled "Mary Poppins: The Movie versus The Stage" where I want to quantify the differences between the movie version and stage version of the story. It's a headache having to code things from scratch since I don't have my usual resources, but I still want to do it anyway. What I have so far (just completed this morning) is the main page. It's still a work-in-progress but my itchy fingers want to show it off anyway.

When I get the books, it will be The Books versus The Movie versus The Stage. *rubs hands together*

Unfortunately, my memory of the movie is going fast. The last time I saw it was earlier this year, and I'm afraid I'm going to misquote some things. So... Are there are Mary Poppins specialists on my flist? Can anyone recommend good Mary Poppins sites?

Item One. I need to stop buying stuff off ebay. The newest items in my collection are two small hardback Pocahontas storybooks: The Hidden Village and The Long Way Home. The second one in particular caught my interest because it's set after the events of the movie and yet John Smith is on the cover. I had to have it.

Items Two: I have started renting DVDs of the Watership Down 1999 series. Completely unrelated to the 1978 movie, it looks and feels so very different. Still, I'm tickled that John Hurt, who voiced Hazel in the 1978 movie, returned to voice General Woundwort in the 1999 series. I'm confused as to why they still use the Bright Eyes theme song, though.

Item Three. I watched Mary Poppins again. That makes it the third week in a row that I've watched it, and sat in roughly the same area of the orchestra stalls. Dude. Besides the fact that NORMAL PEOPLE JUST DON'T DO THAT, I was also fangirly enough to go and get Gavin Lee's autograph afterward. I'd never hung around the stage door for autographs before, so that was a definite experience. Yay!

*Gavin Lee plays Bert. *points to icon* He is most awesome. I'm still amazed that he can sing and dance that much during the 2 hours 50 mins and make it look so effortless. The physical demands of the role are just whoa.

**Here's an mp3 of Chim Chim Cher-ee, the rooftop duet between Bert (Gavin Lee) and Mary Poppins (Laura Michelle Kelly).

***Gavin is most adorable up close, spectacles and all. Bweeeeeeeee. *is a spazz*

It figures. My mum goes and buys a laptop after I've sent my computer off (containing all my bits and bobs). I still don't have access to most of my stuff, but at least I have Paintshop again to amuse myself. And amuse myself, I certainly do. Hee!



( A few more icons behind this cut. )

In this, my last month in London, I shall spend my time doing Londonesque things. This would include watching musicals, inasmuch as my allowance will allow. Last week, ferexample, I watched Mary Poppins. Err, twice.

The main reason is because Gavin Lee (Bert) rocks my socks, but the other strong factor for my lovin' is because they were brave enough to throw the clear Disney sensibilities of the movie out the window. Anyone who's expecting a carbon copy of the movie is going to be severely disappointed. The stage show contains sharp British morals and there's a reason it's not recommended for kids below 7. Honestly, anyone who complains that their version of the Practically Perfect Nanny is heartless (what?!) ought to read the books.

Also...? Mary/Bert OTP theirloveissochimchimcheree.

PS. For your enjoyment, I present Brimstone and Treacle part 2, one of the new songs introduced into the show (and one of my favs). Context: Mary Poppins the Practically Perfect Nanny versus Ms Andrew the Omg So Scary Nanny.