Mary mania set to sweep the nation
AS the West End musical Mary Poppins hits the road this month, Birmingham audiences who saw the London show can expect a few surprises.
Choreographer Matthew Bourne says the design team have been hard at work this year redesigning the musical which began its national tour in Plymouth last week. And the redesign has been anything but a chore.
"If you are only making changes for money then it can be really boring but in this case it has been very exciting as we have been looking at improving it in many ways," he says.
"The reason for this is that the scenery is changing. The house in which the children live will be opening up onto the stage, and that means we are making a number of changes.
"But I enjoy coming back to something and improving it. I tend to keep doing it with my own shows and enjoy the opportunity of making it better.
"The touring show keeps all of the elements which people loved in London but it is never a bad thing to come back to something and change it a bit. And this will then be the blueprint for all of its tours."
Mary Poppins was first created four years ago and played in the West End for three years. Its national tour features just five venues including nearly three months at Birmingham Hippodrome from July 10 to September 27.
Based on the stories of P L Travers and the Walt Disney film with Julie Andrews, it is an all-singing, all-dancing show featuring lots of much loved tunes such as A Spoonful of Sugar, Chim Chim Cheree, Brimstone and Treacle and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
And it has been a busy year for Matthew as his shows Nutcracker!, The Car Man and Edward Scissorhands have been touring and he has been creating a new show, Dorian Gray, to be premiered at the Edinburgh Festival.
Dorian Gray is based on the Oscar Wilde story of a young man who stays handsome while all his evil deeds change his appearance on a painting hidden in the attic.
"It is a smaller work than many of the shows I have been creating recently," Matthew says. "It is also something a bit darker and a bit nastier. If it is successful then we would look to tour it and I would definitely hope to bring it to Birmingham."
* Ticket info
Mary Poppins plays Birmingham Hippodrome July 10 -September 27. Edward Scissorhands comes to the theatre on Nov 11-15. Tickets: 0844 338 5000 and www.birminghamhippodrome.com
