Used to be you only had to be a triple threat -- sing and dance and act. Then John Doyle's productions of SWEENEY TODD and COMPANY meant you had to be a quadruple threat -- be able to play an instrument very well, as well! Now Disney has added a new requirement: The ability to work harnessed -- either upsidedown or suspended 100 feet in the air! Yikes!

I saw MARY POPPINS last week at the New Amsterdam Theatre and enjoyed it very much. And yes Bert walks up the side of the stage and proceeds to tap dance upsidedown! And as you might expect, Mary does some flying of her own!

But what I really enjoyed about this production was that if you took away those "anti-gravity effects", the show would still be very entertaining.

Top notch cast all around (Ashley Brown as Mary and Gavin Lee as Bert are fab) and I was pleasantly relieved to find that the kids (Mathew Gumley as Michael Banks and Katherine Leigh Doherty as Jane Banks) are very engaging and funny and not at all too sweet.

Daniel Jenkins plays George Banks and Rebecca Luker plays a much more relaxed Winnifred Banks than the character in the movie version! I recognized Mark Price, who plays Robertson Ay, from ALL SHOOK UP, and I spent the first act trying to figure out why Jane Carr who plays Mrs. Brill looked so familiar to me. Then I read her bio and I remembered her as the British character in the TV sitcom "Dear John"!

It's a book musical more along the lines of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and not TARZAN. Yes, there are wonderfully changing, colorful sets, but it is the story and the songs that make this show worthwhile.

MARY POPPINS is "a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film" with book by Julian Fellowes, original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, and new songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. It is directed by Richard Eyre and co-directed/choreographed by Mathew Bourne. I really like the new songs (especially "Practically Perfect") and I think they fit really well with the original Sherman Brothers songs.

Chim Chim Cher-ee!

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