Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's production of Mary Poppins, which opened in London in October 2019 and subsequently reopened in August 2021 following the pandemic, will play its final West End performance at the Prince Edward Theatre on January 8, 2023.
The cast is currently led by Zizi Strallen as Mary Poppins and Louis Gaunt as Bert, Charlie Anson as George Banks, Amy Griffiths as Winifred Banks, Petula Clark as Bird Woman, Liz Robertson as Miss Andrew, Claire Machin as Mrs. Brill, Jack North as Robertson Ay, and Paul F. Monaghan as Admiral Boom and Bank Chairman. (Charlie Stemp, who created the role of Bert in this production, is currently on sabbatical, playing Bobby in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Crazy for You this summer.)
Katie Cox, Rose Dawson, Megan Donovan, Sophie Hartley-Booth, Erin Hillyer, Megan Judge, Shayla McCormack, Arrabella McDermott, and Maddison Thew alternate in the role of Jane Banks with Logan Clark, Cian Eagle-Service, Oliver Gordon, George Hamblin, Charlie Murphy, Gabriel Payne, Sebastian Selwood, Noah Swer-Fox, and Frankie Treadaway alternating in the role of Michael Banks.
The ensemble comprises Yves Adang, Angeline Bell, Lydia Boulton, Alison Connell, Adam Davidson, Danielle Delys, Joseph Dockree, Charlie Donnelly, Stan Doughty, Glen Facey, Davide Fienauri, Harry Francis, Lyndsey Gardiner, Ian Gareth-Jones, Maria Garrett, Mark Goldthorp, Jacqueline Hughes, Emma Hunter, Jason Kajdi, Sam Lathwood, Jordan Livesey, Tania Mathurin, Laura Medforth, Alex Pinder, Ben Redfern, Clare Rickard, Lucie-Mae Sumner, Scott Waugh, and Monique Young.
Mackintosh said in a statement, “When the new, revised production of Mary Poppins opened at the end of 2019 with a tremendous cast headed by Zizi Strallen, Charlie Stemp, and Petula Clark, the response was even more ecstatic than the original. We had always planned to run two years until the physical production was required elsewhere but COVID managed to stretch our timetable into 2023 allowing everyone to enjoy an additional supercalifragilistic last Christmas jolly holiday season. Mary Poppins has remained a timeless and timely, uplifting, and joyous theatrical experience—but Mary never says goodbye, only au revoir… till we meet again.”
President and Producer of Disney Theatrical Productions Thomas Schumacher added, “Over its 18 years on stage, each new production of Mary Poppins has managed to speak to us in new, resonant ways—and never more than in this jewel of a production under Richard Eyre’s loving oversight. As they continue playing in productions around the world, Mary, Bert, and the entire Banks family have still much to share—as Mary herself says, ‘with a good deal of love’.”
Based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the original Walt Disney film, the stage production is co-created by Mackintosh and has a book by Oscar-winning screenwriter and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. The score by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman includes the film songs “Jolly Holiday,” “Step in Time,” “Feed the Birds,” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” with new songs and additional music and lyrics by the Olivier award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.
The musical also has orchestrations by William David Brohn, dance and vocal arrangements by George Stiles, sound design by Paul Gatehouse, lighting by Hugh Vanstone and Natasha Katz, co-choreography by Stephen Mear, reimagined set and costume designs by Bob Crowley, co-direction and choreography by Matthew Bourne, and direction by Richard Eyre.
The stage production of Mary Poppins originally opened in the West End in December 2004, running for over 1,250 performances. The production won two Olivier Awards and an Evening Standard Award and subsequently ran on Broadway for over six years.
