Mary Poppins musical

There will be spoilers, so if you're going to see it you may want to stop reading now.

So I went to see the Mary Poppins musical last night in Brisbane. I already knew it was based on the book more closely than the movie so I wasn't expecting exactly the same. But I didn't expect to walk away disappointed either.

It all started with the first song. I couldn't hear some of the words. Whether my seat in the Lyric theatre was in the wrong spot for the acoustics or the orchestra was too loud or the singers just not strong enough, I simply couldn't hear what was said.

And then they skipped my favourite verse from Supercalifragalisticexpealidocious (which is a word my spell checker doesn't recognise) . But what really put me off was the choreography and constantly interrupting songs to make a point. Feed the birds is one of my favourite songs and instead of using non verbal cues to communicate the story the music had to stop while we explored Michael's growing sense of responsibility while showing Jane's lack of interest.

It may be wrong of me, but I would have thought I could have enjoyed one song from start to finish without having the singing stop so I can watch a dance number. If any song was to be chosen to highlight the main actresses voice, that would have been my choice.

I did enjoy the play, and the ending was quite spectacular. I did get the impression that Mary Poppins was afraid of heights though ....

I will still be recommending to people to go see it ... but I'll make sure their expectations aren't as high as mine were.