Yes, I know they're not very good pictures! I took them from the top of a double decker bus as we drove past. Hence the bad angles and the slight blurriness. (Of course, some of my other pictures are a little blurry too...so maybe I'm just sorta unsteady with the camera.)
But there it is anyway: The New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street, just a half block west of 7th Avenue, which is in the heart of Times Square, pretty much. And of course, the main attraction there: Mary Poppins.
We'd seen it before in Chicago, but we wanted to do a Broadway Show while in New York, and we needed one that was definitely appropriate for young (8 and almost 10) kids. And we knew we all liked it, and it had been almost a year since we saw it. So Disney got our vote for our Broadway experience.
If you're interested in what I thought about the musical, you can
read about that here. So what I'll say about this production is that the theater is really gorgeous. It's small, and we had excellent seats on the main floor, about 20 rows back. I could see everything. They supply booster seats for the kids (mine didn't need them, since we were able to position them behind small kids who were on booster seats) which is great since a lot of the audience members were small children who would have been blocked by a row of adults in front of them.
The production itself was similar - the sets were even more lavish in this theater but otherwise it was the same. The performances were all excellent. In Chicago we saw the original Broadway performers (I think), Ashley Brown as Mary and Gavin Lee as Bert. Here in New York we saw Laura Michelle Kelly, who was the London star and who sings on the CD you can buy at Borders. She was excellent and has a spectacular voice.
I wonder how long it will be till Disney remakes the movie using this plot instead of their Walt Disney plot? I think it might actually be worth remaking if they give us this story, which I'm led to believe is more like the book than the movie was. (P.L. Travers apparently signed off on this one, something she never really did with the movie.)
Anyway, it was a very good experience, worth every penny of the (rather expensive) ticket price!
*****
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2 comments:
A Mary Poppins remake? Sacrilege, I say!
I've heard good things about the Broadway show, though. Glad you enjoyed it.
Lots of fun, and not QUITE the movie. Perhaps the best song in it is "Practically Perfect" which Mary sings with the kids, and that one's a new one written for this production.
The story itself concentrates more on George Banks, though obviously the kids are very important too.
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