*hums*

wonderlanded was very lovely and took me to see Mary Poppins, which had a very badly organised foyer. The theatre was very pretty once we got in though. I'd been prepared to have small children forgetting themselves in the excitement, but I was sitting next to two elderly men. Who sang along. Loudly. It two times of me telling him I couldn't hear the actors before he stopped with his "pom pom pom"s. It was a relief when it was one of the new songs they'd inserted that he wouldn't know the words to. At the interval (mmm, Haagen-daz) they swapped around with some elderly women, which was a vast improvement until one of them started talking at normal volume. Dear lord.

But, the audience aside, it was totally magical. I loved the sets - it was like a giant doll's house. The main part was a two-storey hall, with Mr Banks' office to the left side, and a small sitting room to the right. In the middle the stairs went either down to the kitchen, or up to the bedrooms. For the nursery, that pushed back, and an attic bedroom came down, with sometimes a roof on top. There was a kitchen downstairs for one scene as well. The bank was wonderful - forced perspective so that the dome looked huge, and there were silhouettes of scribes on the pillars that moved like they were writing.

When I was little, I always thought that the 'Chim Chiminee' part of the film was amazing, and the sweeps were so brave for defying death by dancing on the edge of the rooftops. So I was a little disappointed that they didn't do that again, but it was still wonderful. Bert walked up the side of the stage and then danced upside down on the top, and it took me a tiny amount of time to realise that it wasn't magic, and I can only imagine seeing it as a child and how incredible it would have been. It was pretty damn incredible at this advanced age. Also when Mary Poppins flew right above the audience with her green parrot head umbrella.

They added bits from the books, so 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' happens when they go to see Mrs Corry, who is all out of conversation, and even words, and can only sell them some assorted letters. Which spell...and there was a great dance for it. When they go to the park the statues come to life as well. Mary Poppins was however even nicer than she was in the film. I miss grumpy Mary Poppins. There was also some weird ahistorical parenting, where Mrs Banks says at the beginning "can't we do without a Nanny?" to which the answer is, no, of course you can't and that wouldn't even occur to you DON'T BE SO SILLY. Jane was a little bit shrieky. The programme was stuffed with the various child actors playing Jane and Michael, with saccharine bios. There was one tragic part where one of the Janes said how pleased she was to be playing opposite her friend Lawrence, but Lawrence doesn't mention her. The utter sadness of childhood unrequited love.

The only real sad thing was that they cut 'Sister Suffragette'. Which I suppose goes hand-in-hand with Mrs Banks' discovery of her anachronistic calling to parent her children singlehandedly, but it was sorely missed.