SUNDRE – Following on the sell-out success of their past several musical performances, a local theatre group continues to set the bar ever higher.
Dozens of people of all ages were at Sundre Arts Centre on Sunday, Aug. 25 to participate in a music theatre workshop testing the waters to see about bringing to the stage the classic story of a magical nanny and her umbrella.
“This was a workshop for anybody who had any interest in Mary Poppins,” said Jamie Syer, the musical director with B.S. Productions, which he co-founded in 2017 alongside creative partner in crime Brian Bailey, director.
“Whether they were thinking of auditioning or on the fence about auditioning, it was just a chance to explore some of the music, to do some dancing, do a bit of acting, look at some of the choreography we’ll be using,” Syer said.
“And we had about 60 people out; it was great. It was a full house and I’d say ages ranged from about seven years old to 75 years old,” he said.
“I thought that we would have a really enthusiastic response because it’s a show that folks know a bit about,” he said when asked if the turnout had perhaps exceeded expectations.
“Last year, when we did something similar for Anne of Green Gables, we had about 40 people out. So, this is about a 50 per cent increase and we were pretty happy with that.”
Originally a series of books written Pamela Lyndon Travers, the whimsical story of Mary Poppins was eventually adapted in 1964 by Disney into a feature film that remains well recognized to this day.
“It was just great to see people enjoying themselves, singing some of the songs – of course lots of people know the songs from Mary Poppins already, but this is a somewhat different show from the Disney movie,” said Syer.
“This is the Broadway West End London version, which has new songs as well as the old familiar songs, new scenes, new characters. It’s a very exciting show to be producing,” he said.
Responding to a question about the selection process and whether any other titles might have been considered close contenders, Syer said he and Bailey “looked at and listened to and watched probably a dozen or more musicals as we made this choice.”
Harbouring a shared affinity to work with a mixed cast that includes kids, teens and adults ever since their production of Matilda almost five years ago, the creative duo sought something that would fit the bill.
“We were looking for great music obviously, but also a story that had some depth and interest to it and the Mary Poppins story certainly does,” he said, “So we figured this was the right choice; it hit all the right notes, so to speak.”
As to what they found most appealing about Mary Poppins, Syer said the story is multi-faceted.
“Of course it started with several books written by a woman named P.L. Travers,” he said.
“Walt Disney and his team chose certain things to feature in their movie. But there are a lot of aspects to the Mary Poppins character that are beyond what the Disney movie did.”
So while in many ways inspired by the Disney version, the B.S. Productions team sees the potential to take the tale in somewhat different directions.
“In this show that we’re doing, a lot of the characters are expanded from what you may have been familiar with in the film, there’s a little bit more conflict and resolution,” he elaborated.
“The little kids – Jane and Michael – are quite a bit more bratty in this version than they are in the Disney film, at least to start with.”
But there are multiple layers beyond differences in the characters themselves.
“The themes are friendship, family, discovering who you really are, how you’re going to deal with conflicts and how you’re going to deal with things that don’t go the way that you want the first time,” he said.
“All of those things, I think they really speak to a lot of things that people are experiencing in their lives, both young people and older people. Mr. Banks in particular is quite a conflicted personality in this show and has a lot of stuff to work through before he discovers how important his family really is,” he said, adding there’s a blend of levity coupled with compelling heartfelt moments.
“Not to make it over-serious; there’s lots of humour, there’s lots of fun, there’s lots of craziness,” he said.
“But underneath, there’s this story that deals with some pretty moving elements, and that’s one of the things that attracted us to it.”
It took about 20 years before Travers finally granted permission for Walt Disney to adapt her story into film as she had reservations about the proposed changes.
“What bothered her about it, was that her Mary Poppins is a little crusty, a little bit rough around the edges,” said Syer.
“And of course the Mary Poppins that we remember in the Walt Disney film is always bright and cheery and happy. And she is in our show too; in the Broadway show,” he said.
“But she has some edges to herself as well, and in some ways the Mary Poppins in the show that we’re producing is a little bit closer to what P.L. Travers might have portrayed in her books.”
After Travers gave Disney permission to make the film, there were others who wanted to bring their own version to life on the stage.
“Twenty years later, she was approached by the producers of the Broadway show to ask for permission to adapt it for a Broadway show; not just adapt the Disney film, but actually create a new show – of course with influence from what Walt Disney had done,” he said.
“And one of the things P.L. Travers said was, ‘Yes, you can do it. But this time, I want it only to have only British actors in it,’” he said with a laugh.
“One of the things that bothered her about the Disney film was, of course in all of the ways that we love, it was Americanized – it was Disney-fied,” he added.
“So, our show uses – I think – all of the best of what’s in the Disney film and adds some wonderful things in addition to that. I was just delighted when I first heard the music and heard what was kept – the best stuff from the Disney film – and what was added,” he said.
“We’re really excited about all that.”
But Syer did not want to get too far ahead of himself. Even though six performances are tentatively scheduled for two consecutive weekends in February 2025, there remains a lot of work ahead, not least of which is finding the right actors for the roles.
“Of course we don’t know yet whether we have a show; we won’t know that until after auditions,” he said, adding those take place on Sept. 25 and Sept. 28 and that anyone who is so inclined is welcome to try out.
“We’ve got probably 50 people so far that say they’re planning to audition,” he said. “But until we actually go through the auditions and make sure that we’ve got people that we feel are the best matches for all these great roles, we don’t know.”
Even so, if history and precedent are any indication, Syer seems confident they’ll find the roughly two dozen cast members required to pull off the production.
“We’re optimistic, but until we get past those two days of auditions…we don’t know whether we’ve got a cast. We hope we will, but we’ll know for sure after the 28th of September,” he said.
“One of the things that delighted us (at the workshop) was we had a number of people out that we’d not seen before. So we’re optimistic for auditions and we hope that we’ve got a cast when that’s done.”
