Mary Poppins the Musical has landed at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre – and it’s incredible!

Thanks to Wales Millennium Centre for inviting us to review Mary Poppins the Musical

Mary Poppins the Musical has landed at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre for the festive season and it is every bit as spectacular as you would hope – and then some.

Filled with incredible effects, energetic and colourful ensemble numbers, wonderful leading performers, and an intricate set that seems to be powered by magic, this is a truly incredible theatre experience that made my spine tingle and filled my eyes with tears on more than one accession.

Like lots of us, the 1964 film is one of my childhood favourites and myself and my two eldest children were lucky enough to see Mary Poppins last time it came to Cardiff back in 2016. It completely blew me away as much tonight as it did back then, it’s an incredible spectacle and a perfect treat for all the family this Christmas. 

It’s a Disney production, produced by the legendary Cameron Mackintosh, meaning the production values are high and everything is bright, slick and polished. 

Naturally, it’s heavily influenced by the film, with the key characters looking and sounding exactly as you want them to, and although the storyline is loosely the same, there are a few changes and plenty of new magical adventures that work well on the stage. 

All the classic songs feature, including A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Feed The Birds, Jolly Holiday, Chim Chim Cher-ee, Step in Time, and Fly A Kite – although not all of them appear in the same way as in the film.

These are supplemented by several new musical numbers most notable Practically Perfect and the inspiring Anything Can Happen, written by Olivier-award winning British duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, which perfectly compliment the original music from the famous Sherman brothers, Richard M and Robert B.

Choreography comes from the renowned Matthew Bourne and it is simply breathtaking. The energy in Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is off the charts, although my personal highlight is Step In Time, which sees Bert and the chimney sweeps tap dancing in glorious synchronicity, and a major ‘wow’ moment which I won’t spoil here but was one of the things that stayed with me from the last time I saw the show and gave me shivers seeing it again tonight. 

The set design is truly impressive. Much of the action takes place in the Banks’ house, but when we move location, to the bank, the rooftops of London, and the brightly coloured worlds of Mary’s adventures, the front of the house closes like a doll’s house, and scenery moves seamlessly across the stage and drops from above as if by magic. I can only imagine the technical wizardry going on behind the scenes. 

Both Stefanie Jones as Mary Poppins and Jack Chambers as Bert sound exactly like Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in the film and have their mannerisms down to a tea, so it’s a surprise to learn they’re both Australian, having headed up the Australian national tour of the show.

Olivier-nominated Michael D Xavier and Lucie-Mae Summer play George and Winifred Banks and it’s great to see their characters having more of a back story. The appearance of George’s childhood nannie Miss Andrew explains a lot about his stiff nature and Wendy Ferguson in this role is suitably fearsome – I’d love to see her as a full-blown Disney villain.

Memorable performances also come from Rosemary Ashe as Mrs Brill, Lyn Paul as the Bird Woman (her Feed The Birds was really emotional), Sharon Watts as Mrs Corry in her shop of words.

And as for the children, Jane and Michael Banks – wow! The parts are played by a rotating cast of youngsters – we saw Elliott Norrington and Ivy-Rae Battoms and they were phenomenal, speaking and singing with such precision and clarity and in the case of Elliott lots of cheeky humour.

If you’re watching this over Christmas, you’re in for a wonderful night. The wording on the front of Wales Millennium Centre, from a review of the show but quoting a famous line from the beloved nanny, isn’t lying. This show really is “Practically perfect in every way”.

Mary Poppins the Musical is at Wales Millennium Centre until Saturday 10 January. Tickets are still available for some performances, priced from £20, although they are selling fast.

Age guidance is 7+ with no admittance to under 2s.

Running time is 2 hours and 50 minutes, including an interval.

Book online here.

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Also coming up at Wales Millennium Centre:

The Shawshank Redemption 13-17 January

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical 21-24 January

Single White Female 27-31 January
Here & Now The Steps Musical 3-7 February

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical 10-28 February