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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
6:00 PM 30th January 2016
arts

Mary Poppins - Palace Theatre, Manchester

 
Zizi Strallen as Mary Poppins. Photo credit Johan Persson
Zizi Strallen as Mary Poppins. Photo credit Johan Persson
If like me you thought that the Mary Poppins musical was just for children, then think again. This extravagant and feel good show will appeal to all ages. It felt just like walking out of seeng a top West End production after leaving the theatre. From the orchestra to the actors to the special effects everything is top class in this spellbinding production.

It would be easy to compare this production to the film version but although the story is still the same and set back in the 19th century, this version with its high quality special effects is definitely of the 21st century.

Zizi Strallen as Mary Poppins reminded me a little of Bonny Langford with her facial expressions, it was only later that I discovered that she is in fact, Langford's niece. She plays the role with a youthful charm.

Matt Lee as Bert was cheeky and charming, he even walks completely around the side of the stage, across it and down the other side at one point! He is a good dancer, too bad the tap dance sequence was one of the many highlights for me.

Mary Poppins - The Company. Photo credit Johan Persson
Mary Poppins - The Company. Photo credit Johan Persson
The two children are magnificently played by Lucy Simmonds as Jane Banks and Lewis Fernee as Michael Banks and would put many an older actor to shame. Milo Twomey as George Banks might be slimmer than the version played in the film but his performance was so powerful that it did not detract from it. Rebecca Lock as Winifred Lock played the part with the understanding of that of a long suffering mother.

The songs such as A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Chim Chim Cher-ee are just a part of the show as the actors. As some of the songs are repeated throughout the night you find yourself singing them well after you have left the theatre!

Many of the sequences are so extravagant they seem like a finale, such is their breathtaking spectacle. Colourful and cheerful it defiantly is an antidote for any winter blues.

Behind all the magic that Mary Poppins produces as the likeable nanny there is a deeper meaning in the story with that of rejection: George Banks rejects his children by letting a nanny look after them, whilst he himself gets rejected as one of his banking deals goes wrong and he is suspended from his job. Of course there is a happy ending as he gets his job back and the family become a happy unit again.

I won't spoil it by telling you how Mary Poppins leaves when her services are no longer required but let's just say, whether you sit in the stalls or the dress circle you will enjoy it.

A brilliant version of this popular musical that will appeal to all ages. To quote one of the songs sung during the night: the show is Practically Perfect!

Runs until Saturday 5 March 2016.
Tickets from: www.atgtickets.com/Manchester.

The show is also coming to the Bradford Alhambra from 2 November 2016
Tickets from: www.bradford-theatres.co.uk