Mary Poppins flies high in MK

Naomi MacKay watched Mary Poppins at Milton Keynes Theatre, running until Saturday 22 November.

Wow, just wow! What a larger-than-life spectacle this show is.

In fact, I’m not sure where to start – this production is a delight from start to finish, with stunning sets, world-class performances, and a veritable carpet-bag full of clever, magical trickery.

This is a West-End production right on our doorstep.

The sets are stunning, and combined with very clever visuals, lighting and other stagecraft tricks, transport the audience from the Bank family’s home in Cherry Tree Lane, which opens up like a doll’s house, to the park, where statues come alive, to Mr Bank’s ‘efficient’ monochrome bank, and into the magical, colourful, over-the-top world of Mary Poppins herself.

The cast needs to deliver big performances to stand up among the wealth of stage tricks – and they don’t disappoint.

Stefanie Jones plays Mary, with great presence, dry wit, and her own brand of magic moments (many of which we’re still trying to work out!) – and offers a pitch-perfect vocal performance. In fact, the whole cast are vocally impressive – from the frankly scary Miss Andrew (Wendy Ferguson), to Winifred Banks (Lucie-Mae Sumner) and pop singer Patti Boulaye as the Bird Woman.

Jack Chambers as Bert is utterly charming – with impressive dance moves – especially in the big tap number, Step In Time, where in a jaw-dropping moment, he dances, literally, upside down across the rooftops.

And I must mention Michael D. Xavier, who plays poor George Banks with empathy and more than a touch of John Cleese in his physical comedy – and of course Connie Jones and Oli Manning who played the Banks children in the performance I watched. These are big roles for young people – and they were practically perfect.

The big song and dance numbers are utterly captivating – it’s a treat to enjoy a large cast like this in ensemble numbers. And with choreography by Matthew Bourne among others, it’s unsurprising that it impresses.

Songs include the favourite songs from the first Disney film – including A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Let’s Go Fly a Kite and Chim Chim Cher-ee, alongside a handful of new songs. And just to be clear, this is no repeat of that first classic movie – scenes and characters are introduced from the Mary Poppins stories by P.L. Travers, to offer a rather different, slightly darker take on the original.

Just one caveat – it’s a lengthy show at two hours and 50 minutes or so. There’s so much going on that I didn’t even notice, but bear it in mind if taking younger children (there’s a minimum age limit of five).

Stunning costumes, a live orchestra, plenty of laughs and a flying nanny – what more could you ask for?

Grab your brolly and fly over now to book your tickets now at atgtickets.com/MiltonKeynes.