Dick Van Dyke was one of the 2021 Kennedy Center Awards honorees. The film and television legend's career was showcased as he accepted the award alongside fellow honorees Debbie Allen, Joan Baez, Garth Brooks and Midori.

At age 95, Van Dyke has a long resume in the entertainment industry dating back to the late 1950s, according to IMDB. One of his most popular roles was in the 1964 film “Mary Poppins,” in which he played both the role of jack-of-all-trades Bert the chimney sweep and the role of bank boss Mr. Dawes.

In an interview with CNN, Van Dyke once said “Mary Poppins” was his favorite role in his six-decade career. “I probably enjoyed the role in Mary Poppins the most,” he said. “It was so much fun. That's my favorite movie too.”

The Oscar-winning classic film was a great example of Van Dyke's singing and dancing skills.

Here's a look back at some of Van Dyke's most famous appearances in Mary Poppins.

“Pavement Artist/Chim Chim Cher-ee”

One of the most famous songs from “Mary Poppins” is “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” the famous duet by Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. But Van Dyke also performed a solo version of the song while his character did his chalk drawings on the streets of London.

The character Bert didn't exist until composers Robert and Richard Sherman wrote the song. They were inspired by a sketch of a whistling chimney sweep and initially thought Mary Poppins would sing the song to the children, but Walt Disney intervened and suggested that it would be better to create a new character.

“Walt said, 'You know, we've got this guy who paints pictures on the sidewalk, and we've got a one-man band, and we've got a guy who flies kites – why don't we make them all one guy and call him Bert? and he will also be the chimney sweep?” Robert Sherman once said, according to SongFacts.

“Step in Time” with the chimney sweep cast

Who can forget “Step in Time,” Van Dyke’s famous number featuring Bert and the other chimney sweeps dancing and singing on London rooftops? It was one of the liveliest routines in the film.

More than 55 years later, Van Dyke's legendary “Mary Poppins” performance was also remembered when professional dancer Derek Hough performed a version of “Step in Time” in his honor.

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” with Julie Andrews

One of the hardest song titles to pronounce – let alone spell – “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” made its debut in the Mary Poppins story when the Sherman brothers adapted PL Travers' book into a feature film, according to BBC News. The magical nanny Mary and her chimney sweep buddy recited the tongue twister word several times in one of the film's most famous sequences.

Richard Sherman once said the word came about the same way he and his brother invented words as children.

“We used to come up with the big double-speak words, we could think of a big offensive word for the kids and that's where it started,” he said. “We started with 'hideous,' and then you can sound smart and be precocious at the same time. We had “precocious” and “hideous” and we wanted something super colossal and that's cheesy, so we took “super” and doubled over to go “califragilistic,” which means nothing, it just came out that way. That’s what we did for two weeks in a nutshell.”

“I Love to Laugh” with Ed Wynn and Julie Andrews

Van Dyke showed off his Cockney accent more than his singing skills in the “I Love to Laugh” sequence. He told CNN that he focused primarily on dancing for the film, and the filmmakers gave him a vocal coach, who turned out to be Irish.

“And his Cockney wasn’t much better than mine,” Van Dyke said.

“While I was taking the picture, no one was making fun of me about the accent, but I definitely took it in afterwards,” he added.

Of the flights he took in the film – and particularly during this song – Van Dyke told the New York Times: “We had to fly all the time. Once [on the original movie] We were all up there playing “I Love to Laugh” and they were on their lunch break and everyone left and forgot we were DJing there. It must have taken 15 minutes for someone to notice and come and abandon us.”

CONTINUE READING: Kennedy Center Honors 2021 Artists and Presenters

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On Saturday, April 9, 2022, San Francisco Performances presented renowned German baritone Matthias Goerne and notable prize-winning young Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho in an extraordinary concert.

The performance was like being at a mountain retreat on a distant planet, drinking distilled ambrosia while hearing rare melodies in an exotic language. Clapping nearly seemed irrelevant; how do we applaud such a spring of profound beauty, a new planetary view, and distinctive lifeblood, that we only suspected existed? And, how do we then walk out, aware that to sustain such dimension of meaning we need to enlarge our own capacity? The evening was like learning to breathe again.

Pfitzner’s Romanticism

Goerne began with six songs by German Romantic composer Hans Pfitzner, one of many composers who experienced minimal recognition because of Hitler’s musical authoritarianism. From “Sehnsucht (Longing),” to “Nachts (Nights)” Goerne sang with the marvelous resonance for which he is celebrated. Each crescendo filled the hall, and each articulation of tone was rich and amply textured. Cho, who showed himself a consummate accompanist from the get-go, followed with a progression of powerful chords that supported the sound, adding what seemed like the foundation of a remarkable house. The palette of tones remained lyric, yet full of meaning, with one line after another intensifying the power of the themes of love, beauty and the loss that followed it. Goerne sang with perfect conviction throughout, his whole body arcing as he reached into the depths and exemplified them.

The highlight of the six Pfitzner pieces, “An die Mark (To the mark),” aptly embodies the Romantic cri de coeur, “That everything is just a dream and painful…This country is my homeland and I am its child (All is dream and full of pain, and I must die… This land is my home and I am its child).” The musical line was firm with conviction, and I never lost track of what he sang.

“Wasserfahrt (Waterfall),” followed, the bass arpeggios establishing their dramatic ground before thinning out to delicate pianissimi. With Heine’s poem, “The sinking sun shines so beautifully,” Pfitzner heightened the conflict: “Soon flows between my heart and your eyes the wide sea (Soon flows between my heart and your eyes the wide sea). Cho and Goerne presented a perfect union of words and music that were so completely in tune with each other they seemed to be two and, at the same time, one.

The final lieder, “Nachts (Nights),” followed suit, and I continued to feel as if I were overhearing an intimate conversation shared openly, a stance characteristic of much Romantic music and poetry. Cho played its luxurious opening as if inside the piano keys themselves, delivering the chromatic chords with exquisite finesse, while Goerne sang from deep within his body, his arms lifting and falling and his body bending as well. The forte chords rose and fell with complete mastery, with the legato as meticulous as the lyric upper register. Vocalist and pianist completed their lines in their own time, yet completely in unison.

Wagner’s “Wesendonck”

Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder” followed, offering the perfumed beauty of the music and text that distilled Pfitzner’s dense textures. Goerne and Cho detailed Wesendonck and Wagner’s masterpiece with both weight and a translucent film. It was as if the sublime moments were occurring then and there and for the first time. “Der Engel (Angel)” lifted the curtain to the angel in the room, while a later selection, “Träume,” showered us with the beauty of the dream. Both showed how much finesse could come from power and sublimity from depth.

The highlight of the cycle was “In the Hothouse.” The redolent jungle atmosphere was dense and thick. Goerne’s tones were luxuriant while he proffered the down-to-earth aspect of the question the speaker asks, “Tell me why you are complaining? (Tell me, why do you lament?)” Goerne evinced more vocal sensuousness as he proceeded; the elision of spaces between the words contributing to the power of vowels gliding into each other, creating a flowing stream, while maintaining distinctness. The powerful and heightened forte on “Glanze (Shine),” climaxed that process, pulling even more beauty and richness out of the somnolent state of being. The finale returned the audience to the opening melodic line, increasing the poignancy of the whole scene, and was velvety and languorous.

The artists’ parallel process reminded me of how human beings can transcend their own limits if they pay attention. This idea reappeared in “Schmerzen (Agonies),” with its fortissimo phrases and powerful octaves. The song’s conclusion, with its quiet decrescendo, created a moving suspension throughout the hall.

The Finale: Strauss

The final third of the performance featured music by Richard Strauss, with the luxuriousness of his song emphasized and easily accessible. “Traum durch diedämmerung,” lyrical in its chromatic ascent and descent but with an almost folk-like melody, set the stage. The song’s text was at once human yet divine; “I do not walk quickly, I do not hurry, a soft, velvet ribbon draws me…” Once again, the lyrical caress of Goerne’s every word and Cho’s gentle touch on the keyboard created a seamless dream.

“Rest, my soul! (Rest my soul!),” a classic Strauss song, was a gorgeous poem that announced the connection of nature to the human soul, with the storms and the rages now connected to the possibility of peace and calm. “Your storms went wild, raging and trembling like the surf when it swells! (Your storms were wild, you raged, and you quivered, like the breakers, when they surge!)” But as the poet urged rest “… and forget what threatens you! (… and forget what threatens you),” the musicians performed at a perfectly harmonized lento pace. The text remained a quiet and restrained admonition that moved from the purely lyrical into an acknowledgment of how one might consciously live.

Strauss’s “Im Abentrot (At Sunset)” concluded with that same view. The texture of the piano, lush trills, declarative chords, dispensation of truths, and Goerne’s plaintive “How tired we are of traveling—is this perchance death?),” if a bit too slow at moments, wrapped a spell around the audience, one which was not easily forgotten.

After a friend asked me to ensure the memorial for his eventual death featured this beautiful song of Strauss’, I realized that what I had savored of the song until then gave me a deeper appreciation of the piece. Strauss’ captivating song resonated as I left the hall. Somber, haunting, and eloquent, standing as a tribute to life, its rapture, and its pain. Surrounded by serious beauty, the rapture of the evening transcended even its more sober aspects. Indeed, exquisite musical art helps deepen all we value.

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The anxieties of these dreadful weeks receded for a while Sunday afternoon as soprano Angel Blue filled UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall with passionate song. In her debut recital for Cal Performances, the California-born singer shared her love of music and her generous heart with a very appreciative audience.

Late Romantic art song was at the core of the program, in ample sets by Gabriel Fauré and Richard Strauss. These short songs are highly dramatic, and blue visibly and vocally inhabited their rich and varied textures.

Blue made her Metropolitan Opera debut five years ago as Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème, eliciting praise for her ability to capture both the sparkle and the sadness of the role (you can catch her charming rendition of “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì” on YouTube). A similar range of emotions was evident in the Fauré songs in this recital, from the hazy moonbeams of “Clair de lune” to the tragedy of rejected love in “Fleur jetée” (Discarded flower).

Angel Blue and Bryan Wagorn at Hertz Hall | Courtesy of Cal Performances

Canadian pianist Bryan Wagorn was a perfect partner for Blue in these operatic miniatures. His experience of musical drama at the Metropolitan Opera (he is assistant conductor there) showed in his spirited accompaniment as well as in his two solos, Debussy’s “Clair de lune” and Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude. Both are very familiar — almost, one might say, chestnuts — but there was nothing mundane about Wagorn’s theatrical performances.

Four Strauss songs, along with Robert Schumann’s dark “Silent tears” (“Silent tears”), gave ample play to Blue’s ability to spin a continuous — and continuously varying — thread of sound. Big moments are called for in these songs — especially in Strauss’s wonderful “Cäcilie,” which closed the first half. She delivered the grand vocal gestures strongly and securely.

At the same time, Blue was sensitive to Strauss’s expressive color notes and moments of introspection. In “Befreit” (Released), his heart-rending song of domestic tragedy, Blue herself was visibly moved to tears, a response that I’m sure was shared by many in the audience. Throughout the recital, Blue warmly shared her thoughts and feelings — something I wish more artists would do.

In a change of pace, the second half opened with Kurt Weill’s sardonic “Youkali,” a dramatic monologue about disillusionment that Blue delivered with breathy tone and cabaret rakishness, hands in pockets like Mack the Knife — even in her silver gossamer gown.

Angel Blue and Bryan Wagorn at Hertz Hall | Courtesy of Cal Performances

Blue also performed three art songs by the mid-century composer Lee Hoiby — a protégé of Gian Carlo Menotti — of which the most engaging was his fine setting of Emily Dickinson’s “There Came a Wind like a Bugle,” with its powerful depiction of a storm

Four spirituals ended the program with verve and heart — from the excited patter of “You Can Tell the World” to the jazzy vitality of “Ride On, King Jesus.” For me, the emotional center was “Deep River,” sung with affecting sincerity.

Blue captured the hall not only with stellar technique but also with generosity of spirit. That came out particularly in the first encore, when Blue started the aria — Giacomo Puccini’s well-known “O mio babbino caro” (Oh my dear papa) — and then stopped suddenly, inviting a young woman in the audience to sing with her, whom she had recently been coaching by Zoom — and apparently had never met in person. I learned later that she was Mikayla Sager, a current Adler Fellow and a soprano who is going places, judging from her splendid impromptu performance with Blue.

A second encore brought the program to a close with a deliciously comic rendition of a patter song from the 19th-century Spanish composer Ruperto Chapí.

Angel Blue and Bryan Wagorn at Hertz Hall | Courtesy of Cal Performances

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Sometimes star players take over games in such a way that soccer feels less than a team sport. That’s not the case when the 49ers get rolling like they did in Los Angeles on Sunday.

In the course of their 27-24 overtime win over the Rams, a number of players stood out in all three phases. Usually we’ll go through the aftermath of the game and pick out some good and some bad accomplishments. However, after Sunday’s win there were too many good and important appearances to spend time picking out the bad.

Here are some of the top performances that helped pull the 49ers out of a 17-0 hole into the playoffs:

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Playing through a thumb injury, Garoppolo overcame a miserable start to finish 23-32 for 316 with a touchdown and two interceptions. The picks were suboptimal, but his ability to knock the ball across the field at key points and lead San Francisco to a touchdown in the late fourth quarter to send the game into overtime and then lead a scoring drive in OT, cannot be overlooked. He exceeded his own mistakes on Sunday – and good QBs do that.

(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

Sunday was perhaps the best game of Armstead’s career. He posted 2.5 sacks and a team high seven print. Armstead was also an integral part of the 49ers’ run defense, which gave up just 2.4 yards per carry in 27 tries for Los Angeles. San Francisco’s overall DL was a good Sunday, but Armstead stood out as the best.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Gould hit both of his field goals, including the game winner and all three of his extra points. He did so without his usual keeper, punter Mitch Wishnowsky, who left the game in the first quarter after taking a headshot on a punt return. That brought Gould into the punter duties as well, where he averaged 45.0 yards on two punts, the first being within the 20. It was a great performance by the veteran kicker.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Samuel’s 2021 campaign reached the point of absurdity where his giant games are no longer registered. He had 45 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown, 95 received yards on four catches, and he threw a 24-yard TD pass to WR Jauan Jennings. He also got away with a 43-yard catch-and-run that kicked off the game-binding touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter. There may not be a more effective WR in the NFL.

(Photo by Harry How / Getty Images)

Jennings was the 49ers’ best player against the Rams. He scored six catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns, and received a team high run blocking score of 89.6 from Pro Football Focus. His blocking ability will always make him a factor in Kyle Shanahan’s offensive, but adding some reception productions could make him a more important element moving forward.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Somehow, Aiyuk puts together the calmest good games in the NFL. He left Sunday six catches for 107 yards as he continued his climb to the top of the 49er passing attack. Aiyuk’s ability to stretch the field vertically, but also to make an impact after the catch, makes him an extremely dangerous player when combined with Deebo Samuel and George Kittle.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Moseley didn’t seem to miss a beat in his first game after a high ankle sprain that failed him for four games. He was sighted three times, allowing only two catches for 18 yards, and he pulled an interception on a deep shot from Rams QB Matthew Stafford. The 49ers need Moseley to play well and he looked like CB number 1 on Sunday.

(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

This was a huge game for Thomas who was able to intercept the game in overtime. That wasn’t his only notable achievement, however. The third round rookie pick held its own after missing practice all week due to COVID-19 logs. He allowed 41 yards and three catches on five targets. PFF had him allowed down for two TDs but the first he and the rest of the defense faked on a goal-line game and the second he had great coverage of TE Tyler Higbee but couldn’t outdo the bigger player on the PBU. Overall, it was a very positive game for Thomas on a large court.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The key could be the Shanahan-John Lynch era best off-season. He made for four prints, a sack, two QB hits and a rush in another strong performance. He has up to 6.5 sacks this season and was arguably the 49ers’ second most effective defensive lineman against the Rams.

(AP photo / Kelvin Kuo)

McKivitz wasn’t great in a vacuum, but that requires us to ignore the context. Under these circumstances, the sophomore offensive lineman was very good. He was pushed into the starting position on the left with an elbow injury by LT Trent Williams. McKivitz had never tackled an NFL game before and his performance was pretty good. He allowed a pair of sacks and four prints, but overall he held the position and kept the Rams from completely ruining the game on his side.

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Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Screenshot from the trailer for the film Mary Poppins

Dick Van Dyke was one of the 2021 Kennedy Center Awards winners. The film and television legend’s career was showcased when he accepted the award alongside honors Debbie Allen, Joan Baez, Garth Brooks and Midori.

At the age of 95, Van Dyke has a long history in the entertainment industry that dates back to the late 1950s, according to IMDB. One of his most popular roles was in the 1964 film “Mary Poppins”, in which he played both the double role of jack-of-all-trades Bert, the chimney sweep, and the role of bank manager Mr. Dawes.

Van Dyke once said in an interview with CNN that “Mary Poppins” was his favorite role in his six-decade career. “I probably enjoyed the role on Mary Poppins the most,” he said. “It was so much fun. This is also my favorite film.”

The Oscar-winning classic film was a great showcase for Van Dyke’s singing and dancing skills.

Here’s a look back at some of Van Dyke’s most famous appearances on Mary Poppins.

“Plaster Artist / Chim Chim Cher-ee”

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Mary Poppins – Chim Chim Cheree [HD]Take me back to childhood – have fun!2012-12-29T20: 23: 32Z

One of the most famous songs from “Mary Poppins” is “Chim Chim Cher-ee”, the famous duet by Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. But Van Dyke also played a solo version of the song when his character drew his chalk art on the streets of London.

The character of Bert didn’t exist until composers Robert and Richard Sherman wrote the song. Taking inspiration from a sketch of a whistling chimney sweep, they initially thought Mary Poppins would sing the tune to the kids, but Walt Disney stepped in and suggested it would be better to create a new character.

“Walt said, ‘You know, we have this guy who paints pictures on the sidewalk and we have a one-man band and we have a guy who flies kites – why don’t we all make a guy and call him Bert ? and he’s going to be the chimney sweep too? ”Robert Sherman once said, Pro SongFacts.

“Step in time” with the chimney sweep casting

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Step in timeIt is one of the masterpieces of the Disney film “Mary Poppins”. Recommended scenes: 02:56, 03:082018-05-03T15: 00: 04Z

Who can forget “Step in Time”, Van Dyke’s famous number with Bert and the other chimney sweeps dancing and singing on the rooftops of London? It was one of the liveliest routines in the movie.

More than 55 years later, Van Dyke’s iconic “Mary Poppins” performance was remembered when professional dancer Derek Hough performed a version of “Step in Time” in his honor.

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” with Julie Andrews

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Supercalifragilisticxpialidocious – Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins 1964“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins. The song was written by the Sherman Brothers and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.2017-06-23T06: 29: 27Z

One of the hardest song titles to say, let alone spell, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” made its debut in Mary Poppins’ history when the Sherman brothers converted the PL Travers book into a big screen movie on BBC News. The magical nanny Mary and her chimney sweep buddy recited the tongue twister several times in one of the film’s most famous sequences.

Richard Sherman once said the word came about the same way he and his brother invented words as children.

“We used to make up the big double-talk words, we could make up one big disgusting word for the kids, and that’s where it started,” he said. “We started with ‘awful’ and then you can sound smart and be precocious. We had “precocious” and “hideous” and we wanted something super colossal and that’s cheesy, so we took “super” and talked twice to get “Kalifragilist” which means nothing, it just came out that way. That sums up what we did over two weeks. “

“I love to laugh” with Ed Wynn & Julie Andrews

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“I love it to laugh”Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Ed Wynn Scene from Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins2010-08-09T02: 38: 58Z

Van Dyke showed more of his Cockney accent than his singing skills in the sequence “I Love to Lachen”. He told CNN that his main focus is on dancing for the movie, and the filmmakers gave him a voice coach who turned out to be Irish.

“And his cockney wasn’t much better than mine,” Van Dyke said.

“Nobody was kidding me about the accent when I was taking the picture, but I took it afterwards,” he added.

As for the flying, which he did in the movie – and especially during that song – Van Dyke told the New York Times, “We had to fly all the time. Someday [on the original movie] we were all up there doing ‘I Love to Laugh’ and they took a lunch break and everybody left and forgot we had hung up there. It must have taken 15 minutes before someone noticed and came and let us down. “

CONTINUE READING: Kennedy Center honors artists and presenters 2021

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Despite some technical issues on opening night, inconsistent sound issues, and a lack of confidence in the performance of Elizabeth Krebs ‘choreography Mary Poppins – the musical theater version of the Disney film inspired by PL Travers’ stories loosely inspired by her own childhood adventures – opened for a rousing ovation from the audience at Smyrna’s Springhouse Theater Company on Friday night.

With sympathetic leading actors, Crystal Kurek, Michael Adcock and Kristina James lead the ensemble of eager and dedicated players (including two really cute child actors who play Jane and Michael Banks) in a pleasant and often appealing version of the much-produced musical that won awards on Broadway and in the west end. Directed by Margaret Meeks with a certain light-hearted elegance, the audience should be made aware that the only actor to use an accent – namely a Cockney – is Michael Adcock as Bert, while the others have Central American-sounding voices with a lagniappe of affect here and there a southern trait added to the mix.

The story should be familiar to anyone who has ever watched television, been to a movie house, or partially knew what was going on around them: A troubled family living on Cherry Tree Lane in Edwardian-era London needs a new nanny to correct you the wild and pesky pair of Banks children (played by Jackson Kinsey as Michael and Shelby Baltimore as Jane) while their parents (played by Kristina James and Gregory Henry) stand at odds as their two awkward servants (Marsha Allen as Paula Deens angry wig [aka Mrs. Brill]and Jack Gilpin as the aging Robertson Ay) try to make the best of an increasingly dire situation.

Literally flying into her life to save the day as an Edwardian superhero is the sometimes silent but refreshingly direct Mary Poppins (the aforementioned Ms. Kurek), the magical and “practically perfect” governess who intends to become the Banks’ houseship -Family in Bristol repairing fashion – with the theater bag full of tricks in their carpet bag.

On the way from quarrelsome family to heartwarming and affectionate foursome, the members of the Banks household struggle with all sorts of fun (some of which will make you laugh, others will make you scratch your head) charming street performer with chimney sweep named Bert (Mr. Adcock has all the sparkling eyes and warmth in the role), who donates good luck with the handshake while he asks for the beautiful Miss Poppins.

Disney’s Mary Poppins and Cameron Mackintosh – as it is officially titled in the eloquent fashion of contemporary musical theater – includes a book by Julian Fellowes (he created Downton Abbey and also wrote the book for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s stage adaptation of School of Rock, which is now on stage at Andrew Jackson Hall from TPAC through Sunday if you want a Julian Fellowes theater weekend) and features the original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (who made the Disney movie) with new songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. As written, the musical can be inventive and resourceful as its imaginative story unfolds on stage when all the technical requirements go smoothly, but when things go off the rails for even a brief moment the action slows down to a crawl and steps in moving forward at a treac pace.

This was the case on the opening night, when the very capable musical director / conductor Allison Hall and her accomplished nine-player orchestra had to vampire for (at least) five minutes while some technical snafu or other type of offstage was causing nonsense backstage. I half expected Fellowes to come off the wings to distract us with jokes and crazy stories of backstage gimmicks while the technical crew worked to fix the pesky issues.

However, we’re happy to report that thanks to Flying By Foy (the people who have made certain actors soar to heaven in their flying belts for generations), Mary Poppins flies gently and ethereally across the sky with her branded umbrella above and her magical carpet bag in her arms, much to the delight of every single person in the audience.

Director Margaret Meeks’ decision to cast Crystal Kurek (who previously played the title role for the Hendersonville Performing Arts Center) is an obvious, wonderful choice, given that her leading actress, Mary Poppins, confidently portrays Mary Poppins with generous charm and impressive panache, and her beautiful voice at the same time used musical score is due. And if there is anyone better suited to play Mary Poppins, then it is clearly her. Adcock is good like Bert, and uses his own charm and showbiz acumen to produce a believable performance. He’d be the first to admit he’s not really a dancer, but he speaks admirably throughout the show, which lasted two hours and 45 minutes on the opening night.

Kristina James is delightful when the actress became the wife and mother of middle class Winifred Banks, demonstrating her own singing talents in the process and showing off her own ample stage presence in scenes with the engaging Gregory Henry as her husband, the unhealthy George Banks. Among the cast members, Ximena Lindsey as the shopkeeper Mrs. Corry makes a bold statement by adding wit and panache to the sensational number “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and Shannon Henry almost stops the show herself as the malicious and demanding Miss Andrew (George Banks’) former nanny), with her lovely soprano who publishes some sheet music that is sure to rip your socks off.

The show can be a tech nightmare, and Springhouse Theater’s Mary Poppins will continue through September 30th, giving the company plenty of time to iron out any technical issues that will continue to nag until the issues are resolved (we even assume so that performance will improve significantly tonight)).

Mary Poppins from Disney and Cameron Mackintosh. A musical based on the stories from PL Travers and the Walt Disney film. Original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Book by Julian Fellowes. New songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Contributed by Cameron Mackintosh. Directed by Margaret Meeks. Musical director of Allison Hall. Choreography Elizabeth Krebs. Presented by the Springhouse Theater Company at the Springhouse Worship and Arts Center, 14119 Old Nashville Highway, Smyrna. Until September 30th. More information is available at www.springhousetheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (with a break of 15 minutes).

Photos by Kenn Stilger / Heavenly Perspective Photography

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