Mary Poppins Official RSS Feed Tue, 06 May 2008 02:15:02 -0700 http://theater.disney.go.com/marypoppins/#/news/ en-us Since then, Ashley's never been far from the spotlight. After putting in her time in church productions as a lamb, a tree, a doorknob and a doily, she moved up to such flesh-and-blood roles as Maria in West Side Story and Cunegonde in Candide. She then attended Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music before finally moving to New York to follow her dream of appearing on Broadway. Just a few weeks later she was cast in the Disney musical revue On the Record.
"It all happened so fast!" Ashley recalls, "I thought I'd be waiting tables!" It was then that she caught the eye and ear of the producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, Thomas Schumacher, who says, "She has that good old-fashioned star quality."
That star quality, combined with her charming personality and sparkling voice made Ashley the perfect candidate for her first Broadway role, Belle in Beauty and the Beast. She spent eight enchanting months playing Belle, but then Ashley was offered the chance of a lifetime, an audition for Broadway's newest hit, Mary Poppins. She auditioned eight times, and still remembers the exact date, April 20th, when she was offered the role.
"The award for Most Dramatic Reaction Ever goes to me," she laughs, "I literally collapsed on the floor and started weeping." Since then she's been having the time of her life, eight times a week. "It's so much fun being in this show," she beams, "I'm the dream nanny. I get to come in and fix everything. I'm just enjoying every moment."
But it hasn't quite settled in for Brown yet, "I'm still the same giggly girl who trips over everything that I was when I was fourteen."
But when she opens her umbrella and soars over the audience, you'd swear she was Mary Poppins herself — and practically perfect in every way.
]]> Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/AshleyBrownFS AshleyBrownFS Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/MPinLA2009 MPinLA2009 MARY POPPINS is the biggest hit to open during the 2006-2007 season and is a must-see musical for theatergoers of all ages. MARY POPPINS received seven 2007 Tony® Award nominations, including Best Musical. The musical also won two Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Gavin Lee) and Outstanding Set Design of a Musical (Bob Crowley), as well as a Theatre World Award (for Gavin Lee).
Based on P.L. Travers's cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, MARY POPPINS features the Academy Awardâ-winning music and lyrics of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The stage production has been created, in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who has written the book, and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who have composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.
Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre leads the award-winning creative team assembled for MARY POPPINS with co-direction and choreography by Tonyâ and Olivier Award winner Matthew Bourne. MARY POPPINS features set and costume design by Tony Awardâ winner Bob Crowley, co-choreography by Olivier Award winner Stephen Mear, lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Steve Canyon Kennedy, orchestrations by William David Brohn, music supervision by David Caddick, and music direction by Brad Haak.
]]> Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/mp500 mp500 North American Tour kicks-off in Chicago in March 2009 Also announced, MARY POPPINS will commence a North American tour scheduled to premiere at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre on March 25, 2009.   The entire original creative team will reunite to bring this magical story of the world's most famous nanny to audiences across North America. 
"We are overwhelmed by the outstanding success of MARY POPPINS in New York," said Thomas Schumacher, Producer of MARY POPPINS and President of Disney Theatrical Productions.  "The audience response to this timeless tale has been tremendous and we are honored to have the opportunity to now take the show into its next life on the road and around the globe."
In October of 2009, MARY POPPINS will make its Australian debut at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney.  The theatre was rebuilt for Cameron Mackintosh's MISS SAIGON and was recently home to Disney's record-breaking run of THE LION KING.
The first licensed productions will debut internationally in the following major cities:  Stockholm (October, 2008), Copenhagen (January, 2009), Helsinki (January, 2009) and Budapest (September, 2009). Plans are also underway to present the show in Holland, China, South Africa and South America. 
Following the highly successful three-year, 1,000-performance run at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End, a previously-announced UK tour will commence in Plymouth (opening June 4th, 2008) and will then play seasons in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Cardiff.  The London production of MARY POPPINS opened on December 15, 2004 and is now in its final six weeks of performances before closing, as scheduled, in January of 2008 prior to the tour.
Cameron Mackintosh said "Having dreamt of doing MARY POPPINS on stage for over 30 years, I am extremely pleased that the stage version has been equally enjoyed by devotees of the film and books and now Mary is about to share her magic with audiences all over the world."
Based on P.L. Travers' cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, MARY POPPINS features the Academy Award®-winning music and lyrics of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.  The stage production has been created, in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who has written the book, and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who have composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.
Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre leads the award-winning creative team assembled for MARY POPPINS with co-direction and choreography by Tony® and Olivier Award winner Matthew Bourne.  MARY POPPINS features set and costume design by Tony Award® winner Bob Crowley, co-choreography by Olivier Award winner Stephen Mear, lighting design by Howard Harrison, orchestrations by William David Brohn, and music supervision by David Caddick. Producer for Disney is Thomas Schumacher.

]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/mptour mptour By Barak Zimmerman Mary Poppins so very magical.
Meet Henry Hodges, 14. He plays Michael Banks. Meet Nicole Bocchi, 11. She plays Jane Banks, his sister. They're just two of the six kids who alternate in the role of the two Banks children. While adult actors typically do eight shows a week, as do kids in other productions, Mary Poppins employs multiple children because the roles are so demanding.
Each child performs two to four shows a week, but shows up two more times each week to "stand-by," just in case. They hang out backstage almost the whole show. Of course, the show always goes just fine, so stand-by time is great for homework and playing games.
When do they get there? Henry rides his beloved skateboard over (with his mom in tow) at around 7:15, but Nicole arrives an hour early to do her hair. "Luckily," says Henry, "I don't have to curl my hair."
So how'd they break into show biz? Neither one was even trying. When Henry was just four, his mom's doctor, whose own mom was a casting agent, suggested Henry try acting. He got the first part he tried for, and ever since then, this Bethesda, MD, native has worked steadily in commercials, TV, and stage. He played Chip in a touring company of Beauty and the Beast and then won the same part on Broadway. He went on to appear in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before helping to open Mary Poppins last year. This Christmas, you'll hear his voice in Disney's animated film "Snowbuddies."
Nicole enjoyed accompanying her older sister to auditions, and one day an assistant director suggested she try out too. She won a part (so did her sister!), and she's been acting ever since. She was six then, and gave up her gymnastics career to start studying dancing and singing. She did several regional plays, then won Cindy Lou Who role in How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Broadway, and moved to Mary Poppins from there. She and her parents moved from Queens to the Theater District so she could be near her work -- just as Henry and his family had done.
So what's a typical day like? It starts late -- as late as noon for Henry, who admits, "I am very much a vampire!" (You might be too if you went to bed most nights after midnight!) Henry does stretches before his high-protein breakfast (he'll do them again before the show), and then goes out for an hour or so to play with his beloved remote control cars. He comes back in, studies with mom from 1-4 (science is his favorite subject), and warms up. Then it's time for the show! On days off, he has gymnastics, tap, ballet, and hip-hop dance lessons.
Nicole wakes up a little earlier and spends her playtime riding a skateboard or walking her dogs. Then she comes in, does vocal and leg warm-ups, studies with a tutor, and maybe has a snack and watches a little TV at 3. She's a big fan of Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana." She also takes singing, acting, and dancing lessons (she and Henry have the same dance teacher). Next year, she'll start middle school at the Professional Performing Arts School, where the teachers are used to working around show schedules.
Both are avid theatergoers. "I see a lot of shows," says Henry. "I try to see everything on Broadway -- and off-Broadway. It's all important." His favorite show right now is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and his favorite actor is Raul Esparza, who played his dad in "Chitty." Nicole's favorite actress is Kristin Chenoweth, and her favorite current show is "Wicked."
Nicole says her favorite thing about being in Mary Poppins is "all the people. Everybody's so nice to me, it's just a great experience to have great people around you." Henry adds, " Being in a show like this a truly amazing experience that anyone would remember for the rest of their life. It's an amazing opportunity to be on Broadway and to be in this show, which is a really great show."

]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/meetbankschildren meetbankschildren The Coast of Utopia. Crowley has been nominated for the Tony® Award 10 times and has now won 5. His other Tony Awards have been for The History Boys(2006), Aida (200) and Carousel (1994). He also won the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design of a Musical for MARY POPPINS.
Crowley designed both sets and costumes for MARY POPPINS. His set design features a 3-story Edwardian house at 17 Cherry Tree Lane. The entire house weighs an estimated 22,000 pounds and every night slides back 40 feet to reveal the nursery, which floats to stage level.
Bob Crowley is an associate of the National Theatre. He has designed more than 50 productions in London for the National, Almeida, Donmar, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Ballet and Royal Opera House including MARY POPPINS (London Evening Standard Award). In New York for the Lincoln Center Theater: Carousel (Tony® Award), Hapgood, The Invention of Love (Tony® nomination and Drama Desk Award), Twelfth Night (Tony® nomination).The Public Theater: The Seagull. On Broadway: Paul Simon's The Capeman (Tony® nomination), The Iceman Cometh (Tony® nomination), Sweet Smell of Success, Disney's Aida (Tony® Award), The History Boys (Tony® Award), The Year of Magical Thinking and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He recently directed and designed Tarzan on Broadway.
MARY POPPINS received seven 2007 Tony® Award nominations, including Best Musical. The musical has also won two Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Gavin Lee) and Outstanding Set Design of a Musical (Bob Crowley), as well as a Theatre World Award (for Gavin Lee). MARY POPPINS has become the biggest hit to open during the 2006-2007 season and is the must-see new musical for theatergoers of all ages.
MARY POPPINS, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 16, 2006, and quickly proved to be a hit with audience members and critics alike.
The London production continues its record-setting run as it enters its third year at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End.
Based on P.L. Travers's cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, MARY POPPINS features the Academy Award®-winning music and lyrics of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The stage production has been created, in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who has written the book, and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who have composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.
Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre leads the award-winning creative team assembled for MARY POPPINS with co-direction and choreography by Tony® and Olivier Award winner Matthew Bourne. MARY POPPINS features set and costume design by Tony® Award winner Bob Crowley, co-choreography by Olivier Award winner Stephen Mear, lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Steve Canyon Kennedy, orchestrations by William David Brohn, music supervision by David Caddick, and music direction by Brad Haak.

]]> Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/crowley crowley By Michael Lassell Two generations of songwriters collaborate on the stage musical of MARY POPPINS
Walt Disney loved music, as anyone who has ever seen "Fantasia" knows. Music was instrumental to his "Steamboat Willie" (1928), the world's first sound-synchronized cartoon, and it was the essential justification for "75 Silly Symphonies" produced between the late 1920s and '30s. The songs in his first animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), became part of the cultural sound track.
So it is hardly surprising that when Disney first read "Mary Poppins," he could hear the melodies coming off the pages, even though the author, P. L. Travers, had not included songs of any kind. It took Disney some 20 years to secure the film rights for the "Poppins" books, and as soon as he did, he turned to a pair of musicians.
Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman had worked for the studio before. In 1958, for example, Dick and Bob, as they are called, had a top-ten hit with "Tall Paul," which Disney had bought for Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, who was being groomed for adult stardom. (Shortly thereafter, their "Let's Get Together," sung by Hayley Mills in the film "The Parent Trap" went to number one as a single.)
"One day, in 1960," remembers Dick Sherman, "Walt handed us a copy of the one-volume edition of the first two 'Mary Poppins' books. He told us to read the book and let him know what we thought. We knew he was throwing down a gauntlet and we had to pick it up."
The Shermans chose six episodes from the books and started writing songs, each of them contributing to both melody and lyrics. Two weeks later, they returned to Disney with "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," as well as early versions of "The Perfect Nanny" and "Jolly Holiday," the latter of which became the extended animated sequence for Mary, Bert, and the children. They had also written "Feed the Birds," which became Walt Disney's personal favorite until the day he died.
Over the next three years, the Sherman brothers turned out 32 songs for "Mary Poppins," of which 14 wound up in the final film. Others appeared elsewhere. A song called "Bobbing Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea," which was to have been part of an around-the-world adventure in which Mary and the children sail away in Admiral Boom's ship-shaped house, was subsequently featured in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," and a song called "Land of Sand," with new lyrics, appeared in "The Jungle Book" as "Trust in Me."
The "Mary Poppins" music is so necessary to the film, in fact, that it's difficult to remember that the original stories were conceived without it. Many of the songs from the 1964 film score are now classics. "Chim-chim-cher-ee" was nominated for, and won, the Academy Award for Best Song. And the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" wound up in the dictionary. At the same time, in England (homeland of the film's star, Julie Andrews), a young man named Cameron Mackintosh fell in love with the Disney film. Mackintosh would go on to become one of theatre history's most legendary producers (having, among many others, the three longest-running Broadway hits of all time to his credit: Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Misérables).
"I'd just left school," Mackintosh recalls. "Mary's character was so extraordinary I could never forget her or the wonderful Sherman brothers' songs. Intrigued enough to read the original book, I was surprised to find that there were several of them, with many more stories, characters, and adventures than those in the film."
By the 1970s, Mackintosh had launched his personal quest for the stage rights to the "Poppins" books — an idea others had pursued and continued to pursue for decades. Mackintosh made no real headway until 1993, when he was able to meet the nonagenarian Travers and convince her to approve a stage musical "created by combining her stories with the key ingredients and songs from the film."
Thomas Schumacher, now president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, notes that the idea of "Mary Poppins" as a stage musical was first raised in 1965 by Dick Van Dyke during a radio interview. About 20 years later, Michael Eisner, who became Disney's CEO in 1984, toyed with the idea of a "Poppins" sequel (and even commissioned Travers herself to write a script). But after the theatrical version of "Beauty and the Beast" opened in 1994, a stage production of the original "Poppins" went to the top of the development list for Disney's new theatrical division.
With The Walt Disney Company holding some rights and Mackintosh holding others, some thought a stage musical of "Mary Poppins" might never be made. Schumacher and Mackintosh, however, both knew that their passion for the property would drive the project forward.
Mackintosh wanted to expand on the same stories from the "Poppins" books that had interested Schumacher and his creative team at Disney. And so, without backstage drama, the two parties became partners in a co-production of Mary Poppins.
"Because the film had been created in America," says Schumacher, "the estate of P. L. Travers wanted the musical to be made in England, as the books were." Happily, Mackintosh knew his fair share of musical theatre musicians and two of them, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, had meanwhile heard that a stage version of "Poppins" might be in the offing.
In much the same way that the Sherman brothers sat down and wrote "Feed the Birds," Stiles and Drewe took the books and wrote some songs of their own completely on spec, including one called "Practically Perfect." Unknown to them, the Sherman brothers had written a song with the same title for the film, but with changed lyrics it had become Mrs. Banks' "Sister Suffragette."
As it happened, Stiles and Drewe were both lifelong fans of the Sherman brothers. The first tune that Stiles picked out on the piano at age six was their title song for "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Drewe's first experience with their music was "The Jungle Book." "Years later," Drewe says, "when I met Dick Sherman I told him that I knew the film so well that I knew all the sounds that Phil Harris makes when Baloo the bear is scat-singing with Louis Prima's orangutan in 'I Wanna Be Like You.' I started doing it and, in what was for me an amazing moment, Dick joined in and sang it with me!"
The vocabulary of the Sherman brothers' music for "Mary Poppins" had been drawn from the vaudeville-like tradition of the English music hall (a popular form of entertainment that was the first performance arena of a young girl named Julie Andrews). "In a sense," says Stiles, "having a pair of Brits working on this score was like bringing the music home."
With the Sherman brothers on hand, Stiles and Drewe went to work on the books, first without a script (as the Shermans had done) and later working with book writer Julian Fellowes. They wrote several songs for the new material from the books and the revised plot, among them "Being Mrs. Banks," "Brimstone and Treacle," and "Anything Can Happen." Furthermore, some of the Shermans' songs needed expanding and resetting for new dramatic contexts.
"Walt Disney did not make movie musicals for the most part," says Schumacher, "as much as he made movies with music. The 'Mary Poppins' film straddles both approaches. It begins, for example, with 'Sister Suffragette,' which has nothing to do with the plot."
For the stage musical, Schumacher and Mackintosh agreed, they would follow the dictates of modern musical theatre, wherein songs exist to carry the narrative, to reveal character, and to set mood, not just for entertainment, however entertaining they may be (like the "laughing gas" tea party in the film).
Some of the Sherman brothers' songs also needed to be expanded for other conventions of the Broadway musical. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" for example, runs less than two minutes in the film. On stage it's a major production number. Songs were changed for aesthetic reasons, too. When "Practically Perfect" replaced "Spoonful of Sugar" as the first song Mary sings to Jane and Michael in the nursery, a new place for "Spoonful" was found and the character of that entire number was changed, if not its melody. "Supercalifragilistic," meanwhile, became a lesson for the children in the power of words. "The whole notion of spelling out the word," remembers Schumacher, "was George and Anthony's."
Ultimately, "the boys," as Cameron Mackintosh refers to Stiles and Drewe, were the perfect collaborators to work with the Shermans. "By the end of the process," Dick Sherman says with a chuckle, "it was sometimes hard to remember who wrote what and when." And Bob Sherman has said that "Temper, Temper" is now his favorite song in the score, including the songs he himself wrote.
At the time Mary Poppins opened on stage, more than 50 percent of the music was new, and a substantially greater proportion of the lyrics. "One of the great joys of this process," says Stiles, "has been our relationship with the Shermans. They are a life lesson in generosity of spirit to let two new writers come in and muck about with their greatest work."
Mackintosh has kind words for all four songwriters. "George and Anthony have treated the Shermans with total respect and have genuinely given themselves the task of raising their own writing to match the level achieved by their heroes. As for Robert and Richard, they recognized that straightaway and were the first to acknowledge it." And thus, a songwriting collaboration between two generations resulted in a brand new Broadway musical.


]]> Thu, 24 May 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/playbillmp playbillmp Click to hear MARY POPPINS' composers Richard M. Sherman and George Stiles on the American Theatre Wing's weekly theatrical interview show, "Downstage Center:"
Sherman and Stiles, the film and stage composers (along with their partners Robert B. Sherman and Anthony Drewe) of MARY POPPINS, got together for a special program that explores the creation of the original film score and how it was adapted and supplemented for the stage musical. Sharing a piano, they play and sing snippets of a variety of songs from MARY POPPINS – including songs that were cut from both versions, some of which ended up in other familiar scores. Separately, Sherman and Stiles also provide quick overviews of their respective careers, with Sherman recalling how he and his brother Robert became the house composers for Disney and later wrote the stage musicals Over Here and Busker Alley, and Stiles reviewing his partnership with Anthony Drewe and how they spent seven years writing Just So, only to win the Olivier Award for their more swiftly created Honk
MARY POPPINS has become the biggest hit to open during the 2006-2007 season and is the must-see new musical for theatergoers of all ages.
MARY POPPINS, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 16, 2006, and quickly proved to be a hit with audience members and critics alike.
The London production continues its record-setting run as it enters its third year at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End.
Based on P.L. Travers's cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, MARY POPPINS features the Academy Award®-winning music and lyrics of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The stage production has been created, in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who has written the book, and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who have composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.
Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre leads the award-winning creative team assembled for MARY POPPINS with co-direction and choreography by Tony® and Olivier Award winner Matthew Bourne. MARY POPPINS features set and costume design by Tony Award® winner Bob Crowley, co-choreography by Olivier Award winner Stephen Mear, lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Steve Canyon Kennedy, orchestrations by William David Brohn, music supervision by David Caddick, and music direction by Brad Haak.
]]> Wed, 02 May 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/hearshermanandstiles hearshermanandstiles WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE FOX 5 NEWS VIDEO CLIP ]]> Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/fox5gooddayny fox5gooddayny LISTEN TO EXCLUSIVE ASSOCIATED PRESS PODCAST CLIP ]]> Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/appodcast appodcast WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE CBS EARLY SHOW VIDEO CLIP ]]> Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/cbsearlyshow cbsearlyshow Complete Article ]]> Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/nymagazine nymagazine Complete Article--> ]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/newsday newsday Complete Article ]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/newyorksun newyorksun Complete Article ]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/npr npr Complete Article ]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/usatoday usatoday Complete Article ]]> Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/associatedpress associatedpress Complete Article ]]> Sun, 12 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/parade parade Complete Article ]]> Sun, 12 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/washingtonpost washingtonpost Complete Article ]]> Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://disney.go.com/theatre/#/news/playbill playbill