LAVISH MARY POPPINS LANDS ONCE AGAIN ... LES 7 DOIGTS TAKES OFF
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Supernanny!
After providing Juste pour rire with their big summer hit, Mary Poppins returns — that’s the name of the forthcoming Emily Blunt movie, too — just in time for the Christmas season.
One of the more spectacular set pieces sees the spell-dispensing governess floating over the heads of the audience, brolly held aloft. But this lavish musical, first seen in London’s West End and on Broadway and now directed and translated into French by Serge Postigo, has plenty of memorable moments of magic besides.
17 Cherry Tree Lane is transformed into a giant doll’s house which opens to form, variously, an enchanted, psychedelically animated park, the architectural splendour of a gilded bank, and the smoky, cloud-swept rooftops of London.
If it initially seems as though all this grandiosity might overwhelm the human element, several performances emerge with admirable clarity.
Jean-François Poulin’s lovable chimney sweep Bert is a particular standout, drawing a touch of inspiration perhaps from Dick Van Dyke’s original, but bringing a lot more believable working class grit.
If Joëlle Lanctôt isn’t quite practically perfect as Mary (she’s easily eclipsed by Poulin, the real star turn here), she’s pretty good at conveying the character’s endearing mix of stiff-upper-lip severity, twinkly kindness and hawk-eyed vigilance.
Special mention should also go to Frédérike Bédard, who both enchants as the homeless “bird lady” and terrifies as a kind of infernal anti-nanny who is part shrieking Valkyrie, part Wicked Witch of the West.
The main change this time around is that director Postigo has taken over from René Simard as Mr Banks. And very good he is too, convincingly evolving from punctilious, bad-tempered dad to lovable overgrown schoolboy fondly remembering his kites and trembling at memories of his monstrous nanny.
The adaptation, from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, has gone back to the original P.L. Travers novels, stopping her in mid-grave spin by ditching the dancing penguins and leaving out the suffragette subplot that Disney added, much to Travers’s disapproval (see the movie Saving Mr. Banks).
This Mary Poppins isn’t beyond punishing her charges for being beastly to their toys in a creepy scene that plays like one of the more nightmarish and cautionary Tales of Hoffmann.
But those deliciously familiar set-pieces from the Disney movie remain, most notably A Spoonful of Sugar, and of course, Supercal-ifragilous (etc.), which Postigo’s Mr. Banks briefly reprises in a delightful bit of comic business.
The musical numbers, dazzlingly choreographed by Steve Bolton, reach a truly joyous — and literal — high in the massed chimney sweeps’ rooftop routine that combines Cockney knees up, Stomp-style tap, urban dance moves and astonishing aerial wire work.
All in all, a jolly holiday treat.
There are no wires needed for the eight acrobats of Réversible as they hurl themselves through the windows and doors of three constantly revolving house fronts with Buster Keaton-like aplomb.
It’s the latest show from the circus-theatre company Les 7 Doigts, founded by ex-Cirque du Soleil performer Gypsy Snider in an attempt to return circus and acrobatics to human-scale roots and emotions.
As such, it suffuses the beautifully accomplished feats — Chinese pole, German wheel, individual and mass juggling, etc. — with an air of melancholy, thanks largely to an often plaintive soundtrack from Colin Gagné (strains of Leonard Cohen and Rufus Wainwright in there).
On the face of it, it’s not an obvious holiday-time show.
But its combination of spectacular circus, appealing fresh-faced personalities, goodnatured comedy and bittersweet invoking of lost loved ones make for a healthy alternative to the traditional Christmas glitz and glitter.