Mary Poppins Director’s Notes:
When I was trying to choose a musical for this year I had several in mind and I was having a difficult time making the decision, until I read the script of the Broadway musical “Mary Poppins”. I remember watching the movie as a child and enjoying how fun and often satirical it was. The children were sweet and the parents were distracted. When I read the musical script, which added more elements from the original P.L. Travers books, the children were naughty and the parents were distant. I could not get through the reading without shedding several tears and delving into deep self-reflection. The script gives depth to every beloved character from the movie without fundamentally changing them. We still sing along to our favorite tunes such as “Spoonful of Sugar”, “Jolly Holiday”, “Step in Time”, and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” but we also feel so deeply the tragedy of a family about to fall apart. We still marvel at Mary Poppins magic while engaging in her pointed and difficult lessons.
I feel as if as a cast and crew we have been on a journey with Mary Poppins as we have all rediscovered our imaginations and the possibility that “anything can happen if we let it”. It has been such a pleasure working with my fellow teachers Marcia Marchesi, and Clare Nowak, as well as Mr. Barger, Mr. Bertles, parents and students to put this production together. I am so proud of the hard work and dedication of this cast and crew. I hope you enjoy this absolutely magical production of Mary Poppins! If interested in further reading, I have included below some additional information and history about how this amazing musical journeyed from book, to movie, to stage.
Mary Poppins, the beloved magical nanny, has captivated audiences since blowing in on an eastern wind into the imagination of author P.L. Travers nearly 90 years ago. She is quoted as saying, “I don’t want to know where she [Mary Poppins] comes from. It isn’t as though I secretly know and wouldn’t tell anyone. I don’t know. And I feel visited by her; I don’t feel for a moment that I invented her.” It makes sense that Travers avoided claiming ownership for inventing Mary because autonomy and mystery are such essential parts of the character’s nature. Independent and headstrong, Mary Poppins occupies the space between reality and magic. Mary Poppins’s adventures are situated in the canon of beloved children’s literature and cataloged across seven books including Mary Poppins (1934), Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935), and Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943).
The Mary Poppins of the books does not spoonfeed the children either sugar or explanations. Displaying a classic English “stiff upper lip,” this Mary of the 1930s has a reliable “keep calm and carry on” sensibility. Stern, vain, and unapologetic, Mary refuses to explain herself and her magic. She becomes quite angry when the children ask her if the extraordinary moments they have witnessed are real, and therein lies her lesson: Jane and Michael must trust in their own instincts and experience in order to ascertain truth and fiction for themselves. Her refusal to engage in their questions isn’t cruel, but rather preparation for a life in which no one is standing by with all the answers.
After watching his daughters enjoy a copy of Mary Poppins, Walt Disney read the stories himself and was delighted by the nanny with the “no-nonsense personality, and the wonderful, impossible things that just happen around her.” Disney’s studio approached Travers in 1938 about turning her creation into a film, but she was not enthusiastic. It wasn’t until 1959, after a personal visit by Disney to her London home, that Travers changed her mind. Travers would have script approval over the project, and she set about creating her own outline. Disney had other ideas in mind and enlisted songwriting brothers Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman to work on the project. They took inspiration from the world of the books to craft several musical numbers including
