.jpg) |
| Cayman Ilika and Greg McCormick Allen in Mary Poppins (Mark Kitaoka) |
Mary Poppins
Issaquah: to January 4, 2015
Everett: January 9-February 8, 2015
Anticipation for Village Theatre’s production of Mary Poppins ran high, especially after
casting was announced of Cayman Ilika
as Mary Poppins and Greg McCormick Allen
as Bert. Both have every attribute you would want for those roles, and each is
as professional a pro can be in delivering the goods! And so it is no surprise
at all that they do in spades!
Then you have some lovely casting choices like
real-life-marrieds Christine Marie Brown
and Andrew McGinn as George and
Winifred Banks, the keep-your-eye-on youngster Mae Corley as young Jane Banks, other real-life-marrieds Connie Corrick (as the Bird Woman) and Hugh Hastings (as the Admiral) and the
sure-to-be-comic-duo of Laura Kenny
and Erik Gratton as the housekeeper
Mrs. Brill and the butler Robertson Ay. Add the furious, chew the stage,
anti-Poppins aria of Mary Jo DuGaw
(as Miss Andrews) and a passel of dancers and you’ve brewed up a terrific,
family fun show sure to please everyone!
This undertaking was so large it apparently took two
directors (Steve Tomkins and Kathryn Van Meter) and two music
directors (Tim Symons and Bruce Monroe)! The set challenges are
pretty massive, with set changes every few moments from inside and outside the
Banks house to the park to a bank and various adventures that Mary Poppins
takes the children to see. Scott Fyfe
creates a satisfying array of locations, and even manages some magic tricks
with a kitchen that must fall apart and reconstruct itself.
And Mary Poppins must fly, of course, which Ilika makes seem
spit-spot, easy as pie, with her perfectly straight carriage and bemused
expression. Since Broadway, Bert must also walk on walls and on a ceiling. And
Allen does so. (The effort for Village, though, strains so hard at their
resources that it’s almost a shame they have to attempt it. In fact, if there
were lower tech, more wink-at-theater ways to accomplish some of the tricks,
the show would have lost none of the fun, but some of the strain.)
The technical support from lighting (Tom Sturge), sound (Brent
Warwick) and delightful costuming (Cynthia
Savage) are at their usual peak. Choreography from Kathryn van Meter is
adorable and energetic. The one piece that doesn’t gel is the too frantic and
piecemeal “Step in Time” where less could have been much more if fewer tappers
had been given a more cohesive moment to shine.
Those who might expect the movie version need to understand
that this script has been added to and changed a bit by book writer Julian
Fellowes, and has a bit more of a lesson on how to be parents than the movie.
Mary’s influence is less direct, though she’s still there to clean up messes. George
Banks has a better arc, from a disconnected, always at work, father and
husband, to remembering that he had dreams as a child and finally embracing
that. McGinn has a delicious moment of silliness with which to express that.
No comments:
Post a Comment
This is a moderated comment section. Any comment can be deleted if the moderator feels that basic civility standards are not being met. Disagreements, however, if respectfully stated, are certainly welcome. Just keep the discussion intelligent and relatively kind.