Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins, playing until Jan. 5 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, 2750 Granville St., Vancouver. Tickets: $29-$70, available at artsclub. com or by calling 604-687-1644.
A word of warning for those attending the Arts Club Theatre production of Mary Poppins this holiday season: don't expect a reincarnation of the magical nanny Julie Andrews made famous in the 1964 Disney movie.
This Poppins is a hybrid.
The titular character in the Broadway musical was inspired by both the rosycheeked, crowd-pleasing Disney creation and the harsher, more disciplinary literary character from the original children's book series written by P.L. Travers in the 1930s.
Sara-Jeanne Hosie, a veteran of the Arts Club stage, is tasked with balancing these two personas. When director Bill Millerd first cast her in the lead role, she promptly re-watched the Disney movie and read the book series - both of which centre on an English nanny who sweeps into a household on Cherry Tree Lane to take charge of the unruly Banks children.
"Mary on the page, when you read it, she can seem quite cold," Hosie explains. Her challenge was to look beyond the literary character's fearsome veneer and develop her own rendition of the moral and mysterious Mary Poppins.
"You know how much she loves the children and you know that she's there for them, but her way of loving them is through discipline and through showing them that they can find strength in their imagination," she says. "And they want discipline, you know, children rebel because they aren't being given the attention and the discipline that they want and I think that's what Mary understands."
The musical production fuses story elements from the books and the movie and audiences can expect to hear some familiar Disney songs, such as "Spoonful of Sugar," "Chim Chim Cher-ee" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," as well as a few new numbers.
Though the popularity of the 1964 film had interested Broadway producers for years, their offers were all rejected by Travers, who was not a fan of Disney's adaptation. It was not until the early '90s that English theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh persuaded Travers to allow Julian Fellowes (creator of the period drama Downton Abbey) to revisit her original novels, as well as the movie, and write a new book for the stage. The musical premiered in London in 2004.
One of the biggest challenges in staging Mary Poppins is finding creative ways to present the magical aspects of the story in front of a live audience.
"It is a massively technical show," explains Hosie, who spends much of the production strapped into a harness. It took a bit of practise to maintain her prim composure and rigid posture while flying over set designer Alison Green's London rooftops, but it's something she now looks forward to.
"Every night, just holding that umbrella and that bag and soaring up into the air, how could you not enjoy that at work? It's awesome."
Combine flying with singing, choreography and pronouncing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Hosie says this role has her stretched in all directions.
"It's vocally demanding, it's physically demanding, it's demanding from a dance perspective and it's demanding from a risktaking perspective." Not just for kids, Hosie says this Arts Club production will appeal to those aged five to 95.
"The spectacle and the magic, the Disney aspect of it, is really geared towards children, and the heart of the piece and the lessons are really there for the grownups."
The story extols family values, she says, as overworked father George Banks learns to put his wife and children first. And though it may not be traditional holiday theatre fare, Hosie says Mary Poppins will leave audiences with warm, fuzzy feelings fitting for the season.
"I think it's a great Christmas show because whenever I finish a show I want to call a member of my family and tell them I love them or that I appreciate them."
Thrilled to have landed the part of Mary Poppins, Hosie is also excited to introduce the venerable nanny to the next generation. At a matinee performance during opening week, the actress spotted two young girls in the crowd - both dressed up in matching blue skirts, blue blouses and Poppins-style hats - and realized just how endearing her character is.
"I love children, I have nieces and nephews that I've dedicated this show to, and just knowing that I may be their first introduction to a character who affected me so much as a little girl, that's a real gift to get to be that person and to bring that to life for them."
