The Friendly Faces of Cherry Tree Lane and Beyond

CAST OF CHARACTERS

BERT: A Cockney one-man-band, a sidewalk artist, a chimney sweep, and a kite salesman. Bert also narrates the story, introducing the audience to the inhabitants of No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Bert is Mary Poppins's best friend in the film. In the books, when the weather is fine, he draws lifelike pictures on the pavement with chalk (screever), but when it rains he instead sells matches and is thus known as the Matchman. Mary Poppins sometimes goes on outings with Bert on her Second Tuesday off. In the film Bert is a combination of the Matchman and the Sweep and has a more prominent role in the children's adventures, including taking care of Mary's Uncle Albert. In the stage musical he acts as a narrator and far-away friend of Mary and the Banks children.

MR. GEORGE BANKS: A bank manager in the City of London, Mr. Banks is father to Jane and Michael. He tries to be a good provider, but often forgets how to be a good father. In the books he is rarely present, but is gruffly loving of his wife and children. In the film he has a more prominent role as a cross man preoccupied with work who wants order and largely ignores his children and wife, but later on his attitude changes for the better, as Bert convinces him that while he focuses on his life at the bank, his whole life, including his children's childhood, is passing him by. His role in the stage musical is similar to the film, but he has an additional back-story drawn from the original books, in which he was tormented by a cruel nanny during his childhood. He is often consumed in his work and, throughout the film, was shown to neglect his children. But he was not a static character. His attitude changed throughout the film to finally becoming the type of affectionate father that most children would wish for, shown most prominently with him fixing his children's kite and taking them to go fly it outside. Though this is not the character specifically created in the books he is represented well. Though he came across as brash and harsh and remained that way in the books, Disney felt that would be a pessimistic persona to portray.

MRS. WINIFRED BANKS: Winifred Banks is the wife of George Banks and mother of Jane and Michael. In the books she is the struggling mistress of the Banks household, and is easily intimidated by Mary Poppins, who treats her with thinly-veiled contempt. In the film she is a strident suffragette who is treated somewhat satirically. The reason she was made into a suffragette in the film was to explain why she sometimes did not have time to look after her children. In the stage musical she is a former actress who is under constant pressure from her husband as she struggles to enter his social circle.

MICHAEL & JANE: The Banks children, Jane and Michael, are bright and precious. However, they misbehave to get attention from their parents. However, in the books there are five Banks children: Jane (the eldest), Michael, John, Barbara and Annabel. Jane and Michael are the eldest and go on most of the magical adventures with Mary Poppins. John and Barbara are toddler twins who only start going on adventures in the second book. Annabel is the youngest and joins the family midway through the second book. But only Jane and Michael appear in the film and stage musical.

KATIE NANNA: The last in a long line of nannies for the Banks children before Mary Poppins arrives, Katie Nanna can't stand anymore of Jane and Michael's pranks and leaves No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane.

MARY POPPINS: Mary Poppins is the main character of the books, a magical nanny who sweeps into the Banks home on Cherry Tree Lane and takes charge of the Banks children. Jane and Michael's new Nanny, Mary Poppins uses magic and common sense to show the Banks family how to appreciate each other again. She never acknowledges her strange and magical powers, and feigns insult when one of the children refers to her previous adventures. She flies in on an umbrella, and departs when the children have learned enough lessons, promising to return whenever they need her. Full of hope even when things look bleak, she tells them "anything can happen if you let it."

POLICEMAN: This local policeman brings Jane and Michael home after many of their adventures and becomes fond of Michael's kite.

ADMIRAL BOOM: Admiral Boom also lives along Cherry Tree Lane. He is a former Naval Officer, but now lives in a house shaped like a ship with his wife Mrs. Boom and his assistant Binnacle, who is a former pirate. He is remarkable for his use of colorful sailor's language, although, as the books are intended for children, he never actually swears; his favorite interjection is "Blast my gizzard!" In the film he is a neighbor of the Banks family who fires his cannon to mark the time; this version of the Admiral is far less salty and more of a proper, "Shipshape and Bristol fashion" kind of sailor, insistent on order and punctuality.
 
MISS LARK: Miss Lark lives next door to 17 Cherry Tree Lane. She is the owner of two dogs: Andrew and Willoughby. Originally she only had Andrew, who is pure-bred, but the mongrel Willoughby joined the family at Andrew's request. She appears throughout the books and is usually appalled by the magical antics of Mary Poppins. She appears in the film and stage musical as a minor role.

WILLOUGHBY: Miss Lark's dog.

MRS. BRILL: The Banks' cook, she rules the kitchen at No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane and helps keep Robertson Ay in-line.

ROBERTSON AY: Clumsy but good-hearted, the Banks' footman has trouble following instructions. 

**In the books, the Banks have three servants in addition to Mary Poppins: Ellen, Mrs. Brill, and Robertson Ay. Ellen is the maid although she loves the children, she hates having to look after them when there is no nanny in the house. Mrs. Brill is the cook; she particularly dislikes Ellen. She is often grumpy for no reason. Robertson Ay is the jack of all trades. He is a young boy (mid-teens) and is very lazy and forgetful, doing things as putting bootblack on Mr. Banks's hat, thus ruining it. In Mary Poppins Comes Back, it is hinted that he is a character in a story that Mary Poppins tells the children about a king who is led astray by The Fool (Jester). It is hinted that he is the fool. The film depicts Mrs. Brill and Ellen but not Robertson Ay; the musical includes Mrs. Brill and Robertson Ay, without Ellen.
 

THE PARK KEEPER: A stickler for rules and regulations, the Park Keeper watches over the park near the Banks' home.

MRS. CORRY: Mysterious and ageless, Mrs. Corry runs the "talking shop" where people buy conversations and gingerbread decorated with real stars from the sky. She knew Mr. George Banks when he was just a boy.

FANNIE & ANNIE: Mrs. Corry's daughters.

VALENTINE & WILLIAM: Two of the children's special toys.

NELEUS: The character of Neleus, son of Poseidon, reemerged from the pages of mythology in a story called "The Marble Boy" in Mary Poppins Opens the Door. According to Greek mythology, Poseidon abandons Neleus before he is born. In the P.L. Travers story, however, Neleus is part of a family of ancient statues overlooking a cliff in Greece, and is separated from Poseidon when he is packed up and shipped away to a British park. There he meets Mary Poppins and the Banks children and is magically brought to life:

"What is your father's name? Where is he?" Jane was almost bursting with curiosity.

"Far away. In the Idles of Greece. He is called the King of the Sea." As he spoke, the marble eyes of Neleus brimmed slowly up with sadness.

In the musical Mary Poppins, Neleus's yearning for his father is used to parallel Jane and Michael's

longing for their own who has distanced himself emotionally from them. With the help of Mary Poppin's magic,at show;s end, both Neleus and the Banks children are happily reunited with their families.

As for how P.L. Travers came up with the idea of Neleus: There is a statue in London's Hyde Park called "Boy with Dolphin" which looks very much as Neleus is described in "The Marble Boy." The statue was sculpted in 1862 and it is possible  that Travers saw it whenever she strolled through the park.

QUEEN VICTORIA: A statue of the former Queen of England.
 
THE BIRD WOMAN: She sits in front of St. Paul's Cathedral every day, selling bags of crumbs for feeding the pigeons.

VON HUSSLER: A conniving businessman seeking a loan from Mr. Banks' department at the bank, whose business proposal is based on profits alone.

JOHN NORTHBROOK: A conniving businessman seeking a loan from Mr. Banks' department at the bank,whose business proposal is based on decent, hardworking men seeking a better life.


MISS ANDREW: The oldest, cruelest nanny in the world. When Mary Poppins disappears, Mrs. Banks calls on Miss Andrew, George Banks' old nanny. Miss Andrew is extremely fond of bad-tasting medicine as a punishment.


THE BANK CHAIRMAN: Mr. Banks' supervisor at the bank.

MISS SMYTHE: The bank Chairman's humorless secretary. 

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Choreography

Hand-ography

Below is the choreography for "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" performed by Brian Collier from the original Broadway cast.

Below are the videos of Charis running through the hand-ography with Lynne

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

If the videos aren't playing on your browser, below are their respective YouTube links

NOTE: The videos are set to private so you will need the addresses to access them.

VIDEO 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILgnS0bA58c

VIDEO 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJRsdHnMuM

VIDEO 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2fU80Dhphs

 

Here is the video that was being passed around at rehearsal from YouTube

***NOTE: All rehearsal videos of choreography will be posted in the Facebook group too***

Mary Poppins - A Brief Analysis

The following is a character analysis showing a comparison of Mary Poppins' relationships with the Banks children, Bert, and Mr. Banks, and how these relationships change within the book, film, and stage adaptations.

If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. He will push his helmet slightly to one side, scratch his head thoughtfully, and then he will point his huge white-gloved finger and say: ‘First to your right, second to your left, sharp right again, and you’re there. Good-morning.’” (Travers 2). These are the directions any regular nanny would follow. However, in the case of a certain Mary Poppins, air is the most suitable path to 17 Cherry-Tree Lane. She knocks on the door only to be greeted by a gruff Mr. Banks. Four children run hectically behind him. A charismatic screever, Bert, draws life-like illustrations on the pavement if the weather is fine or sells matches if the weather is bad. How Mary Poppins interacts with each of these characters varies depending on the adaptation of the story. Her actions and interactions also help to set the mood and tone of the adaptation. In P.L Travers’s novel Mary Poppins, the titular character is portrayed as a grim, ugly, old woman. However, in the film and stage adaptations of the story, Mary Poppins is portrayed in a different light. Like her personality and appearance, Mary Poppins’ relationship with the children, Bert, and Mr. Banks, varies in the three works which results in significant differences between the adaptations.

Mary Poppins’ most notable relationship is that which she has with the children. In the original book, Mary Poppins is portrayed as an ugly, older, woman who denies she is magical but does not try to hide it at all. She is known by other magical creatures as “The Great Exception” because she maintained the magical abilities all children have. For example, she is capable of communicating with animals. When the children mention her magical powers, Mary Poppins denies them sternly and punishes the children when they acknowledge them. In the book, there are four children: Jane, Michael, John, and Barbara. Mary Poppins only takes Jane and Michael on her adventures because the twins, John and Barbara, are too young. In the second book, Mary Poppins Comes Back, which was published a year after Mary Poppins in 1935, does bring the twins along with her on her adventures, along with Jane and Michael. However, in the film and stage adaptations, there are only two Banks children: Jane and Michael. Unlike her stern personality in the book, Mary Poppins is stern, but still maintains a gentle and admirable disposition. Jane and Michael, prior to Mary Poppins’ arrival, sing a tune outlining the perfect nanny. They sing:

Have a cheery disposition. Rosy cheeks. No warts. Play games, all sorts. You must be kind you must be pretty, very sweet and fairly pretty. Take us on outings, give us treats. Sing songs bring sweets. Never be cross or cruel. Never feed us Custer oil or gruel. Bleh! Love us as a song and daughter and never smell of Farley water… Hurry nanny. Many thanks. Sincerely, Jane and Michael Banks. (Sherman)

Mary Poppins is firm when the children misbehave and try to take advantage of her. However, when they are not feeling their best, or just need a little magic in their life, Mary Poppins’ lively personality comes to life in musical numbers such as “A Spoonful of Sugar,” when the children refuse to take their icky medicine, and in “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” when the children jump into a dreamland through one of Bert’s street illustrations. Mary Poppins’ personality becomes a mix of both that of her book and film character in Mary Poppins: The Musical. In the stage adaptation of the book, Mary Poppins is a self absorbed, loving, nanny who wants nothing but the best for the two Banks children, Jane and Michael. She thinks herself as “practically perfect in every way” (Sherman) as she states in the catchy song “Practically Perfect.” The children in this adaptation have worse behavior than they do in the film. Unlike in the book and film, Mary uses her magical powers to punish the children. She does so in “Temper, Temper (Playing the Game)” when she brings Jane and Michael’s toys to life that they have been mistreating, to teach them - through fear - to treat their toys with care. These are few of the many examples of how Mary Poppins’ relationship with the children is different in the book, film, and stage adaptation.

Another relationship that is evident in the book, film, and stage adaptation, is that between Mary Poppins and Bert. In the original book, Bert is Mary Poppins’ best friend and one of the few people she is nice to - the others being Mrs. Corry and Nellie-Rubina. Bert is a charismatic screever and Matchman. When the weather is nice, he draws life-like illustrations on the pavement and when the weather is bad he sells matches off of street corners. It becomes evident that Bert has feelings for Mary Poppins when they go out together on her second Tuesday off. However, after that they never go out together again. In the film adaptation, Bert’s affection towards Mary Poppins is first made clear in the second song, “Jolly Holiday,” in which he sings:

Ain’t it a glorious day? Right as a morning in May… I feel like I could fly. Have you ever seen the grass so green or a bluer sky? Oh it’s a jolly holiday with Mary. Mary makes your heart so light. When the day is grey and ordinary, Mary makes the sun shine bright. Oh happiness is blooming all around her. The daffodils are smiling at the dove. When Mary holds your hand, you feel so grand. Your heart starts beating like a big brass band. Oh it’s a Jolly Holiday with Mary. No wonder that it’s Mary that we like. (Sherman)

At the end of the song, Mary Poppins sings back to him telling him that “though you’re just a diamond in the rough Bert, underneath your blood is blue.” These are the first few hints the audience gets that there is something more than just a friendly relationship between Mary Poppins and Bert. The song introduces that Mary Poppins and Bert have already known each other for a while. Later, in “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” Mary Poppins and Bert are playful and flirtatious. They are also somewhat affectionate in “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” Unfortunately, Mary Poppins and Bert are never more than friends in the film. In the stage adaptation, Mary Poppins is quite aware of Bert’s feelings for her. They still sing “Jolly Holiday” together as one of the first songs during Act I. Throughout the musical, it is evident that Mary Poppins is aware of Bert’s feelings for her. She ignores his affection throughout the entire musical. Many audiences like the idea of Mary Poppins and Bert together as a couple, but evidently Mary Poppins does not.

Mary Poppins also has a very subtle relationship with Mr. Banks, more notably in the book and musical than in the movie. Mr. Banks’ personality remains consistent throughout the three adaptations. He is a disciplined man who works at the Dawes Tomes Mousley Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in London, and would probably be known as a Type A personality in modern times. He lives at 17 Cherry-Tree Lane with his wife and children. He dismisses the “Votes for Women” movement that his wife is an avid participant of, and treats his wife, children, and servants as assets rather than people. He makes these opinions known in his song “The Life I Lead.” His ideas were portrayed in the musical in “Being Mr. Banks.” The relationship between Mary Poppins and Mr. Banks changes as Mary Poppins’ personality changes. In the book, as well as the musical, Mr. Banks had a vicious nanny, known as Mrs. Andrews, who tortures him through his childhood and turns him into the man he grows up to be. When Mary Poppins’ personality is revealed in the book and stage adaptation, it seems that Mr. Banks was looking for a nanny who resembled his childhood nightmare so that his children would, hopefully, grow out of their troublesome behavior and into a more disciplined and regimented one, much like his own. Mrs. Andrews is present in the musical, but is only mentioned briefly in the book. She is never mentioned, nor is she present, in the film adaptation.

Mary Poppins’ personality changed subtly, but enough to affect the plot, in the three adaptations of her fun and magical story: book, film, and stage. She is gruff and cruel in the book. She is kind and gentle, yet stern, in the movie. She is snarky and narcissistic with hints of gentleness in the musical. These different personalities affect the different ways in which she interacts with the Banks children, Bert, and Mr. Banks, in the book, film, and stage adaptation. So that leaves the question: who is the real Mary Poppins? Is she the gruff woman thought up by P.L. Travers? Is she sweet and kind woman written up by Walt Disney? Or is she the self-absorbed sweetheart adapted to the story by Julian Fellowes? That is a decision left to the audience.

"Who of us doesn't want a Mary Poppins in our life? Someone to love us unconditionally, to be magical but not too sappy, to enchant us and to make everything right, and then to leave us to do it on our own." 

- Thomas Schumacher 


 

Mardi Gras 2016 Schedule

Below are the dates, times, and routes that each parade of this season is set to roll. Remember that parades through the French Quarter and the Marigny are walking parades, not the traditional large float parades.

Parade routes & schedule are subject to change without notice.

The Life of P.L. Travers

THE AUTHOR, THE STORYTELLER, THE MASTERMIND

Born Helen Lyndon Goff in Australia in 1899, P.L. Travers led a life cloaked in mystery. Even after her death in 1996, the details of her past were unclear. An obituary in the Guardian stated that she was the granddaughter of the premier of Queensland; another in the New York Times described her as the daughter of a sugar planter. While neither of these details are exactly true, you can hardly blame the writers for poor fact checking. Travers had a tendency to bend her life story and make it more attractive, a trait she likely inherited from her father, Travers Robert Goff. He also liked to reinvent his life story; not even his wife was privy to the truth about his past. Goff was a heavy drinker. He spent many evenings spinning stories of a fairytale-like childhood spent in Ireland, though he was actually born in England. Lyndon, as P.L.’s family called her, would spend her life chasing her father’s fantasies. Eventually his myths melded with her own version of the truth to create a personal history that was part reality, part fiction. In her early twenties Lyndon pursued an acting career, changing her name to Pamela and adopting her father’s first name as her last—Pamela Lyndon Travers. It sounded more romantic, more melodic. She later moved to London as a journalist, adopting the pen name P.L. Travers. Further veils were cast, blurring the truth of her history as Pamela invented a new life that seemed much more exciting.

Like the magical nanny she created, P.L. Travers never explained. Throughout her career, people often asked her where the idea for Mary Poppins came from, but she never really told. She believed in mystery, mythology, and folk tales - she believed in questions, not answers. For P.L. Travers, life was a never-ending quest for the truth. One night when Helen was ten, she was left in charge of her two younger siblings during a violent thunderstorm; their mother had walked into the storm, distraught, and they didn't know if she would return. To comfort the younger children, Helen began to weave intricate and magical stories about an enchanted horse, allowing the children to fill in the blanks of the tale.

Although she entered her teens wanting to be an actress and a dancer, Helen soon realized that writing held more power for her. She loved to express herself through storytelling. In February of 1924 she left for London, England, the home of poets, playwrights, and famous storytellers. "There, at last," she said, "I was where I wanted to be" (as quoted in Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers).

While in London, she wrote for Australian newspapers, describing her adventures abroad. She soon met the poet George William Russell, nicknamed AE, who became a close friend and mentor. He told her that she had a "dangerous brilliance." It was Russell who introduced her to the inner meaning of fairy tales and mythology and, in a moment that would change her life, suggested that she write about a witch. Something about a magical teacher - a combination wise old woman and fairy godmother - appealed to Travers. She took all of her experience and imagination and poured then into a solitary figure, blown into London by a mysterious wind.

In 1926, Travers had written the first Mary Poppins story, Mary Poppins and the Match Man, about a young Mary Poppins meeting Bert the Match Man for an afternoon tea in one of his sidewalk chalk drawings. She built on that original story, creating a world around her mysterious nanny that combined magic and ordinary life. Who is Mary Poppins? Travers' biographer Valerie Lawson wrote, "The original Mary Poppins was not cheery at all. She was tart, and sharp, rude, plain, and vain. That was her charm; that - and her mystery." Mary Poppins, published in 1934 was very popular, and Travers began writing a series of books about the family who lived at No. 17, Cherry Tree Lane.
 
The first book became an international phenomenon and eventually found its way into the hands of Walt Disney. Disney himself was delighted by the book and became determined to make it into a movie. This did not prove to be an easy task. After nearly 20 years of persuasion, Travers finally agreed to sign over the rights to the books, and Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke became the Mary Poppins and Bert that so many fell in love with.

The movie became a sensation all its own; it was nominated for 13 academy awards and won 5. The movie cemented Mary's place in the imaginations of countless children and adults. However, P.L. Travers felt that Disney had not stayed true to her books, and walked out of the film premiere in tears. Having been so upset by the film adaptation, Travers was very hesitant when Cameron Mackintosh approached her about turning her books into a musical. She acquiesced on the condition (expressed in her will) that only English-born writers – and no Americans, particularly anyone involved with the film production– were to be directly involved in the creative process of the stage musical. Ultimately, she was again convinced after Mackintosh agreed that no one involved in the creation of the movie would be involved in the making of the stage show. The Mary Poppins musical opened in England in 2004.

Throughout her life, Travers explored the connections between life and storytelling. Fairy tales, she wrote, "live in us, endlessly growing, repeating their themes ringing like great bells. If we forget them, still they are not lost. They go underground, like secret rivers and emerge the brighter for their dark journey." In Mary Poppins Opens the Door, she writes of a mystical crack in the fabric of reality that opens between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in which all the fairy tale characters come out to play.

"When I sat down to write Mary Poppins or any of the other books, I did not know children would read them. I’m sure there must be a field of 'children’s literature'—I hear about it so often—but sometimes I wonder if it isn’t a label created by publishers and booksellers who also have the impossible presumption to put on books such notes as 'from five to seven' or 'from nine to twelve.' How can they know when a book will appeal to such and such an age?

I certainly had no specific child in mind when I wrote Mary Poppins. […] But I suppose if there is something in my books that appeals to children, it is the result of my not having to go back to my childhood; I can, as it were, turn aside and consult it (James Joyce once wrote, 'My childhood bends beside me'). If we’re completely honest, not sentimental or nostalgic, we have no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is one unending thread, not a life chopped up into sections out of touch with one another.

Once, when Maurice Sendak was being interviewed on television a little after the success of Where the Wild Things Are, he was asked the usual questions: Do you have children? Do you like children? After a pause, he said with simple dignity: 'I was a child.' That says it all.

But don’t let me leave you with the impression that I am ungrateful to children. They have stolen much of the world’s treasure and magic in the literature they have appropriated for themselves. Think, for example, of the myths or Grimm’s fairy tales—none of which were written especially for them—this ancestral literature handed down by the folk. And so despite publishers’ labels and my own protestations about not writing especially for them, I am grateful that children have included my books in their treasure trove."

P.L. Travers dies in 1996 at the age of 96. Her journey was over, but in many ways it had begun. At the first day of rehearsal for Mary Poppins, Cameron Mackintosh said to the company, "I'm sure Pamela Travers is here, today, in spirit! And you can be sure she has plenty of notes for us already!"

"Anything can happen if you let it

Life is out there waiting, So go and get it"

- The Ensemble

WELCOME TO YOUR PRODUCTION BLOG

One-Stop-Shop to All Things Practically Perfect

Welcome ladies and gents to our Mary Poppins The Musical blog. What I will be doing is uploading collections of research information to aid in your work during the rehearsal process. Topics will span from production history, to character research, and even phonetic alphabet spellings for dialect help. My goal is to approach the blog from the production and performer standpoint, giving you any and all information you may need. Some will be a collection from various references, while others will be a direct copy and paste. Feel free to start a comment thread on any posts and have a conversation about the discussed topic! Remember to check back frequently to older posts as they may be updated throughout our production. And as always, if you find that there is something you would like posted, please do not hesitate to ask!

So let's get started, shall we?

Here is to our practically perfect production and the amazing work you all are and will do over the next eight weeks!!

"Broaden your horizon
Open different doors
You may find a you there
That you never knew was yours"

-Mary Poppins