At the end of Act I, Bert and Mary Poppins briefly perch on a London rooftop. It’s a quiet turning point in a brisk and colorful musical about a very British nanny who arrives just in time to save a very British family.
On Wednesday night at Durango Arts Center, Merely Players ran an energetic dress rehearsal as if it were opening night. With a multi-generational, performance-ready cast, the musical unspooled like star shine. Bright, sparkling and full of vitality, the production, inspired by the stories of P.L. Travers and re-invigorated by the Walt Disney film, is full of solid performances, surprises and a highly theatrical style of storytelling.
To open the show, Equity Actor Adam Fontana creates Bert, a savvy man-about-town who serves as narrator, street artist, chimney sweep and colleague-in-arms of Mary Poppins. With a wink and a smile, Bert quickly sets the tone for a fantasy about a mysterious and ambiguous outsider – imagined and/or real – who puts right an off-kilter human situation.
Played with easy, believable confidence by Jessica Jane Harris, Poppins appears at No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane on the mere wishes of children who want a nanny who’s fun and full of surprises. Through logic, order, tough love and high-beamed imagination, Poppins introduces a new way of making life both more interesting and bearable for the entire family.
Fontana and Harris should be familiar to local audiences because they both came through the stellar drama program of Mona Wood-Patterson and Charles Ford at Durango High School. I clearly remember Fontana as Tevye in the 2007 DHS production of “Fiddler” and Danny Zuko in the 2006 “Grease,” opposite then Jessica Hagemeister as Sandy. Both now are professionals, and they are the vortex around which this polished production of “Mary Poppins” spins.
The musical contrasts scenes of home, parlor and children’s bedroom, with magical excursions to Hyde Park, the rooftops of London, the steps of St. Paul’s and the inner clankings of the Bank of England. Each scene emerges through highly theatrical means. Enhanced lighting, dramatic sound and all the other material elements at hand establish an atmosphere of troubling reality or brilliant fantasy.
Credit director Wood-Patterson for the overall vision and technical director Ford for all the illusions – a bank at noon, London at night and dishes that mysteriously tumble and reassemble in a kitchen cupboard.
Choreographers Shea Costa and Denise Hagemeister deserve praise for fresh movement and buoyant ensemble dances. Costume designer JoAnn Nevils smartly contrasts stolid Victorian dress with edgy Vivienne Westwood fantasies overflowing with stripes, patterns, ruffles and flourishes. Music director Ivy Walker has a double task of coaching her singers to stay apace of the recorded orchestral tract, something the Players are using for the first time. It’s a mix that works.
George and Winifred Banks, the bewildered parents who undergo their own transformations, are ably performed by Stephen Bowers and Mandy Gardner. Their children, Jane and Michael, transition convincingly from smart-mouthed kids to threshold adults by actors Elsa Caudle and Anthony Berger. All the supporting characters are well cast and often double cast, most imaginatively by Nicholas C. Parker as a bank clerk and the Holy Terror of English nannies, Miss Andrew.
Would that “Mary Poppins” were running all summer, but alas, it plays only through May 9.
If you go
“Mary Poppins,” a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film, directed by Mona Wood-Patterson, designed by Charles Ford. Original music and lyrics by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, book by Julian Fellowes, co-created by Cameron Mackintosh. 7 p.m. May 1-2 and 7-9, with matinees at 1 p.m. May 2 and 9. The Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave. Tickets are $24 and are available by calling 247-7657, online at www.durangoconcerts.com and at the Durango Welcome Center. Run time is a little longer than 2 hours, with one 15-minute intermission.
