Nowt2Do.Com are delighted to be able to announce the following news.
DISNEY AND CAMERON MACKINTOSH PRESENT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE MUSICAL STAGE PRODUCTION OF

10,000 PRODUCTION SEATS FOR “MARY POPPINS” NOW RELEASED

10,000 production seats, which were being held off sale until the enormous set was installed on stage at The Bristol Hippodrome have been released for public sale for the long awaited stage adaptation of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s “ MARY POPPINS”.  The seats are spread over the entire 61 performances of the limited eight week season.

Cameron Mackintosh said “We always hold back a number of seats until we see how the set looks on stage and view what things look like from the audience. Obviously we are never able to release these until close to opening, due to the limited time we have for set up in the theatre. Having visited the theatre, we have all seen what the production looks like in the Hippodrome and we are delighted so many extra seats are going to be made available.”

The main structure of the set, which is 60 foot high, is one of the tallest on any stage and is the only set that has a personnel lift, which reaches a height of 60 foot. It is constructed with 45 tonnes of steel.  The centre tower weighs two tons alone and operates the nursery, internal roof section and the nursery platform.

Additional electrical power is being installed into the Hippodrome to be able to run the lighting rig along with 25,000 LEDs and 12,000 metres of fibre optic stars.

There will be over 450 lights, including 113 moving lights, 150 colour changing units, 21 smoke machines and 8.5km of cables for the lighting alone.

It will take a team of over 70 technicians, including carpenters, electricians, riggers, sound engineers, automation and projection specialists to install one of the most technically complex shows ever staged.

Laura Michelle Kelly will play ‘Mary Poppins’ and Gavin Lee ‘Bert’ in the first musical stage production of “MARY POPPINS”, which will premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre in London on Wednesday 15 December, forty years after the release of the film. The film starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in these roles.

Laura Michelle Kelly has just completed a successful season playing ‘Hodel’ in “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway. Recently she triumphed as ‘Eliza Doolittle’ in Cameron Mackintosh’s production of “My Fair Lady” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which she played for the last six months of its run, receiving unanimous critical acclaim for her performance. Previously to this, her West End roles included ‘Sophie’ in “Mamma Mia!”, ‘Eponine’ in “Les Misérables”, ‘Swallow’ in “Whistle Down the Wind” and ‘Belle’ in “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”. This will be the first time that the young actress has originated a leading role for the musical stage. Gavin Lee has just completed filming “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Beyond the Sea”. His London theatre credits include featured roles in “Peggy Sue Got Married”, “Contact”, “A Saint She Ain’t” and the Royal National Theatre’s production of “Oklahoma!”; his other theatre work includes the West End productions of “Crazy For You”, “Me and My Girl” and “Bugsy Malone”.

The stage adaptation of the beloved classic “MARY POPPINS”, based on the stories by P. L. Travers and the 1964 Walt Disney film, is being produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh. The production will open at the Bristol Hippodrome, for eight weeks prior to its London premiere.

Rehearsals will begin on 19 July, when the full cast will be announced.

Performance times will be Mondays-Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are available from the Prince Edward Theatre Box Office on 0870 850 9191.

The production will preview from 15 September, with a press night at the Bristol Hippodrome on 28 September, through to 6 November 2004; prior to opening at the Prince Edward Theatre London on 15 December 2004, forty years after the premiere of the film. P. L. (Pamela) Travers’ timeless creation continues to exert an extraordinary hold over contemporary imagination and the power of the material has attracted some of theatre’s finest creative talents to work on the project.

Announcing the team, the two producers Cameron Mackintosh and head of Disney Theatrical Thomas Schumacher said, “Everyone we talked to about working with us feels the same, a sense that these characters and stories are their own personal property. It is this deep rooted appeal which has enabled us to put together a dream team to write and stage the musical.”

Cameron Mackintosh added; “Having been to school at Bath and now residing in Somerset, the Hippodrome has always been my local. As a schoolboy I remember the thrill of attending World and European Premieres there of classic musicals like GUYS AND DOLLS and THE MUSIC MAN. So it gives me particular pleasure that we will be having the World Premiere of one of the world’s favourite creations, MARY POPPINS, in Bristol, prior to its opening in London in December 2004.”  

The internationally renowned and multi award-winning creative team assembled for MARY POPPINS is led by stage and film director Richard Eyre. Co-direction & choreography will be by Matthew Bourne, with additional choreography by Stephen Mear. Bob Crowley will design the sets and costumes. Lighting design will be by Howard Harrison, sound by Andrew Bruce, and orchestrations by William David Brohn. MARY POPPINS will include many of the original songs from the film with music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The new 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 British team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe who have written the new songs and additional music and lyrics.

Pamela Travers was as mysterious, magical and extraordinary as her creation, the practically perfect nanny Mary Poppins. Born Helen Lyndon Goff in Queensland Australia in 1899, Travers became an actress, a journalist, a poet, and, finally, the writer of one of the 20th Century’s most enduring fables. She travelled widely, knew many of the famous characters of her generation and died in 1996 at the age of 96. The books, following her adventures with the Banks family, were published between 1934 and 1981 and have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into 24 languages. Diana Rawstron of Goodman Derrick, one of the trustees of the estate of the late Pamela Travers, said, “The Trustees are delighted that Mrs. Travers’ long held ambition of a stage musical based on her stories about the famous nanny is about to be realised. We are very confident that the collaboration between Cameron Mackintosh and Thomas Schumacher will result in a marvellous show.”

Over ten years ago Cameron Mackintosh was introduced to Pamela Travers and together they talked about her wish for her greatest creation to become a stage musical. “I was very touched that she entrusted me with the stage rights to her books, but equally aware that the only possibility of making her dream come true would be a real collaboration between myself and Disney, so that we could create a new work out of the original Travers’ stories and yet retain the essence of the extraordinary magic of the film. From the outset of my meetings with Tom Schumacher last year, it was apparent that we were both searching for the same show. We very much hope that we will achieve Pamela’s dream and create an equally enjoyable, but different, musical MARY POPPINS to delight a modern audience.”

It took Walt Disney twenty years to make the film of MARY POPPINS, from the time he first tried to secure the film rights to its triumphant premiere in 1964. The film was an immediate and phenomenal success earning universal acclaim for its story-line, score, performances and pioneering mix of live action and animation.

The film was nominated for 13 Academy Awards® and won five, including ‘Best Music’, and ‘Best Song’ for Chim Chim Cher-ee in a score which also included such favourites as A Spoonful of Sugar, Feed The Birds and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious released, engendering extraordinary affection in its audiences and has remained one of Disney’s most enduring and best-loved films.

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World Premier Feature

Your Say

Behind The Scenes - Week 2 of the 'get in' & interview with Production Manager Simon Robertson.

Cast Announcement

Original Composer Richard Sherman Interview

Mary Poppins Comes Alive!

Read about the Mary Poppins Auditions

Read our interview with Resident Director James Powell

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