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Mary Poppins may be one of the most beloved film musicals of all time, but it took 30 long years for it to transfer to the stage. This recording of the original London cast shows the wait was worthwhile though. The new version mixes in elements from both the original books by P.L. Travers (which she started publishing in 1934) and the Disney movie starring Julie Andrews, from 1964. (Mary seems to take 30 years to do anything.) Most of the original songs by brothers Richard and Robert Sherman (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) are present--Mary Poppins is so associated with "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "A Spoonful of Sugar," and "Chim Chim Cher-ee," her Oscar-winning duet with Bert, that starting from scratch would have been unthinkable. But then George Stiles and Anthony Drewe came in and dusted off some of these songs, and wrote entirely new numbers as well. Miraculous, these are wonderful and blend in seamlessly with the 1960s tunes, thanks in no small to William David Brohn's lovely orchestrations. As the titular super-nanny, Laura Michelle Kelly is so warm and scrumptious that she might as well be referring to herself when she sings "I'm practically perfect in every way." The rest of the cast is equally adept, making this Mary Poppins sweet but not treacly, and the rare show to upstage its source.The idea of adapting the 1964 movie musical Mary Poppins into a stage musical seems so obvious that it is remarkable 41 years had to pass before it occurred with the 2005 London production that serves as the source for this original cast recording. The film, of course, was based on the children's books by P.L. Travers about a British nanny of the Edwardian era who possessed magical powers, and it succeeded due to a memorable performance by Julie Andrews and the song score by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. But Travers was not particularly enamored of the movie, and that may have delayed a stage version if her permission was required. Then, too, the Walt Disney Company, which made the film, only got into the musical theater business in a big way in the '80s. Questions of rights aside, there was also a structural problem in turning Travers' series of short stories into a script. The film simply went with the episodic nature of the material, but a stage adaptation would need more of a story line, a lesson a teenage Stephen Sondheim learned when he set out to adapt it for the stage as a writing exercise in college, when he was unable to complete a draft. (Ironically, Travers later invited him to do a professional version before Disney got involved.) Thus, the 2005 musical, while necessarily incorporating the most popular songs from the movie ("Chim Chim Cher-ee," "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," etc.) dumps a handful of others and alters the plot (such as it was) from the movie substantially. There is a bit more of the arbitrary Mary Poppins of the Travers stories, who is as likely to disappear without explanation as she was to appear without explanation. And there is a villain, an evil nanny, curiously named Miss Andrew. The parents of the children, meanwhile, have been turned into more of a modern, troubled couple, with the mother expressing her low self-esteem in "Being Mrs. Banks." That's one of a series of new numbers penned by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who also contribute to extensions and additions to the old songs, along with orchestrator William David Brohn. The new material is pedestrian compared with the old, unfortunately, and some of it may be a bit too gritty. "Temper, Temper," for instance, with its chorus, "Children who refuse to learn will not return," may scare the youngest viewers. But the show still has the big hits, and Laura Michelle Kelly leads a talented cast that performs earnestly. So, the initial point remains: at long last, Mary Poppins is an obvious work for the musical stage and likely to be a long-running success.
Condition:NEW. Brand New Factory Sealed
TRACK LISTINGS
1 Act 1. Prologue / Chim chim cher-ee 1:34
2 Act 1. Cherry Tree Lane Part 1 3:28
3 Act 1. The perfect nanny 1:14
4 Act 1. Cherry Tree Lane Part 2 1:08
5 Act 1. Prectically perfect 4:10
6 Act 1. Jolly holiday 6:23
7 Act 1. Cherry Tree Lane (Reprise) / Being Mrs Ban 2:46
8 Act 1. A spoonful of sugar 3:31
9 Act 1. Feed the birds 3:39
10 Act 1. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 4:24
11 Act 1. Temper, temper 4:15
12 Act 1. Chim chim cher-ee (Rooftop duet) 4:03
13 Act 2. Entr'acte: Run away 1:08
14 Act 2. Brimstone and treacle Part 1 2:38
15 Act 2. Let's go fly a kite 2:04
16 Act 2. Good for nothing / Being Mrs Banks (Repris 4:06
17 Act 2. Brimstone and treacle Part 2 3:40
18 Act 2. Step in time 5:34
19 Act 2. A man has dreams / A spoonful of sugar (Re 3:31
20 Act 2. Anything can happen 4:54
21 Act 2. A spoonful of sugar (Reprise) / A shooting 3:46
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