Making Disney’s Mary Poppins was anything but merry, as the winning Saving Mr. Banks shows. BY ROD LOTT If there’s one thing Hollywood loves more than itself, it’s stories about itself. From The Artist to Argo, these films have translated into Tinseltown’s ultimate display of self-affection: Oscar gold. This holiday season, Hollywood’s gift to itself […]
poppins
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Saving Mr. Banks
This holiday season, Hollywood’s gift to itself — oh, you shouldn’t have! — is also Walt Disney Pictures’ Christmas offering to moviegoers: Saving Mr. Banks, a depiction of the trying times that went into the making of Disney’s 1964 classic Mary Poppins. Unwrapping it, you may be surprised to learn that so much material is […]
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‘Poppins’ pops
Disney’s national touring production of the Mary Poppins musical is great, fun and colorful. Its cast is excellent, too, with one strange exception: Mary Poppins herself. As Mary, the magical nanny, Madeline Trumble was the only one who seemed overly showy, clearly putting on a performance, whereas the rest of the actors were much more […]
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Sweep well
Photo: Kyle Froman Few get to act dirty in a Disney musical. Con O’Shea-Creal does, because that’s what you do when you’re cast as the chimney sweep of Mary Poppins. Taking a visual cue from Dick Van Dyke’s performance as Bert in the beloved 1964 film, O’Shea-Creal spends much of the stage show covered in […]