Stage Version of Mary Poppins opening in 2004
Anybody seen this from the entertainment section of www.cnn.com?
LONDON, England (AP) -- "Mary Poppins," the 1964 Disney film about a magical nanny that won Julie Andrews an Oscar in the title role, is being reinvented for the theater as the latest stage musical to draw inspiration from a well-known film, the producers said Monday.
The musical, as yet uncast, will open December 15, 2004, at the Prince Edward Theater on the West End after a seven or eight week out-of-town tryout. Rehearsals start in July.
The production will mark the first collaboration between Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the British theater impresario behind such global hits as "Cats," "Les Miserables," and "The Phantom of the Opera," and the theater division of the Walt Disney conglomerate, whose shows to date include "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," and "Aida."
Sir Richard Eyre, for nine years the head of Britain's National Theater, will direct.
"The fusion actually has created something which is fresh," says Sir Cameron Mackintosh, 57, who met several times with Pamela Travers, Australian author of the various novels on which the film "Poppins" was based.
Drawing from the beloved film and extensively from Travers' books, "Poppins" on stage will be "something familiar but which has its own life, which is what one always strives for with any adaptation of anything," says Mackintosh -- "that it actually lives in its own world; you don't compare it."
For the theater production, the Oscar-winning score by the American brothers Richard and Robert Sherman will feature a half dozen or more new songs by the younger English songwriting team of George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics).
That means playgoers can expect "A Spoonful of Sugar" and the Oscar-winning best song "Chim Chim Cher-ee" alongside new numbers, several of which, "Brimstone and Treacle" and "Practically Perfect," are already generating a buzz.
"Hopefully, everyone will get their favorite moment," says Stiles, the composer.
At a recent London readthrough of the musical for an invited audience, including Disney CEO Michael Eisner, lyricist Drewe played ________ Van 's screen role as Bert; two-time Olivier Award-winner Joanna Riding sang Mary Poppins.
In probably the greatest departure from the film, British actress-singer Julia McKenzie played Miss Andrew, a character prominently featured in the books who isn't in the movie at all.
The book writer for the stage musical is Julian Fellowes, the onetime actor who won an Oscar last year for his screenplay for "Gosford Park."
In an interview, Fellowes, 54, said returning to Travers' three main Poppins books and other works, the aim "was to invigorate a show by going back to its source."
These days, more and more theater musicals ("The Full Monty," "The Witches of Eastwick," "Footloose") derive inspiration from films, whereas once the creative flow of traffic went the other way.
Among London's current hits is a stage adaptation of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which itself began life as a film with a Sherman brothers score.
Mackintosh said he thought the time for a stage "Poppins" was now. "The whole notion of having a nanny -- which in the '70s and '80s seemed something from a bygone era -- now no longer is: Most people with a bit of money have nannies."
Still, with eight months to go until rehearsals, and a 30-strong cast still to be signed, Mackintosh was sounding reluctant to make too many claims on "Poppins' " behalf.
"The show materially is in pretty good shape," he said, "as much as one can be that hasn't gone into rehearsal."
Anybody seen this from the entertainment section of www.cnn.com?
LONDON, England (AP) -- "Mary Poppins," the 1964 Disney film about a magical nanny that won Julie Andrews an Oscar in the title role, is being reinvented for the theater as the latest stage musical to draw inspiration from a well-known film, the producers said Monday.
The musical, as yet uncast, will open December 15, 2004, at the Prince Edward Theater on the West End after a seven or eight week out-of-town tryout. Rehearsals start in July.
The production will mark the first collaboration between Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the British theater impresario behind such global hits as "Cats," "Les Miserables," and "The Phantom of the Opera," and the theater division of the Walt Disney conglomerate, whose shows to date include "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," and "Aida."
Sir Richard Eyre, for nine years the head of Britain's National Theater, will direct.
"The fusion actually has created something which is fresh," says Sir Cameron Mackintosh, 57, who met several times with Pamela Travers, Australian author of the various novels on which the film "Poppins" was based.
Drawing from the beloved film and extensively from Travers' books, "Poppins" on stage will be "something familiar but which has its own life, which is what one always strives for with any adaptation of anything," says Mackintosh -- "that it actually lives in its own world; you don't compare it."
For the theater production, the Oscar-winning score by the American brothers Richard and Robert Sherman will feature a half dozen or more new songs by the younger English songwriting team of George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics).
That means playgoers can expect "A Spoonful of Sugar" and the Oscar-winning best song "Chim Chim Cher-ee" alongside new numbers, several of which, "Brimstone and Treacle" and "Practically Perfect," are already generating a buzz.
"Hopefully, everyone will get their favorite moment," says Stiles, the composer.
At a recent London readthrough of the musical for an invited audience, including Disney CEO Michael Eisner, lyricist Drewe played ________ Van 's screen role as Bert; two-time Olivier Award-winner Joanna Riding sang Mary Poppins.
In probably the greatest departure from the film, British actress-singer Julia McKenzie played Miss Andrew, a character prominently featured in the books who isn't in the movie at all.
The book writer for the stage musical is Julian Fellowes, the onetime actor who won an Oscar last year for his screenplay for "Gosford Park."
In an interview, Fellowes, 54, said returning to Travers' three main Poppins books and other works, the aim "was to invigorate a show by going back to its source."
These days, more and more theater musicals ("The Full Monty," "The Witches of Eastwick," "Footloose") derive inspiration from films, whereas once the creative flow of traffic went the other way.
Among London's current hits is a stage adaptation of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which itself began life as a film with a Sherman brothers score.
Mackintosh said he thought the time for a stage "Poppins" was now. "The whole notion of having a nanny -- which in the '70s and '80s seemed something from a bygone era -- now no longer is: Most people with a bit of money have nannies."
Still, with eight months to go until rehearsals, and a 30-strong cast still to be signed, Mackintosh was sounding reluctant to make too many claims on "Poppins' " behalf.
"The show materially is in pretty good shape," he said, "as much as one can be that hasn't gone into rehearsal."