Village Theatre’s ‘Mary Poppins’ is a delight

As the song goes, it’s “Practically Perfect.” In many ways.

Village Theatre’s production of “Mary Poppins” — as good as one might see on New York’s Broadway or in London’s West End — is a blend of the P.L. Travers stories, the 1964 Walt Disney movie and additional stuff by famed producer Cameron Mackintosh and Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downton Abbey.”

It’s not the movie reworked for stage or the even the books onstage. The musical is a great blend.

Don’t delay your ticket purchase. The show opens Jan. 9 at the Everett Performing Arts Center and runs through Feb. 8.

In the years leading up to World War I, London was a manufacturing and financial center covered in coal dust. It was a prosperous time for the upper class and a busy time for working-class people such as chimney sweeps, domestic servants and nannies.

Enter the Banks family.

George, the father, works at a bank; Winifred, a former actress and now a mother, manages the household; the children, who often are naughty, are Jane and Michael. The family has a cook and a butler, as well as a revolving door for nannies who don’t seem to stick around.

Enter a new nanny, Mary Poppins, a friend of the neighborhood chimney sweep, Bert. Her magic and steadfastness work wonders on the children and their parents. Through Mary, the audience meets many characters and learns many lessons. It’s not just for kids, or even the baby boomers who saw the movie 50 years ago.

As we learned in the 2013 movie “Saving Mr. Banks,” Travers wasn’t particularly pleased with how Disney treated her Mary Poppins stories. For one thing, some of the characters were left out in the Disney version.

Mackintosh met with Travers before she died, and she gave her blessings to the musical, as long as some of the original characters were added back and the script was written by an English author (Fellowes) with a grasp of the Edwardian era. The great movie songs by brothers Richard and Robert Sherman are joined by new tunes from George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.

What Village Theatre adds to all of this are delightful sets, lighting, technical feats, costumes, direction and choreography and performances by fine orchestra and some of the region’s best musical theater actors.

Most audiences won’t give a thought to movie stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke when they watch Cayman Ilika as Mary Poppins and Greg McCormick Allen as Bert.

Ilika grew up in Seattle and studied voice at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. She has appeared on nearly all of the region’s musical theater stages.

Singing and dancing since he was a child, Allen is one of those locals who went to New York to pursue a career on Broadway and got called back home. 5th Avenue Theatre audiences most recently saw him in “A Chorus Line.”

Mae Corley as Jane and Jaryn Lasentia as Michael, both charming, are products of Village Theatre’s KidStage. Andrew McGinn, as George Banks, has Seattle Repertory Theatre and Broadway credits, as does Christine Marie Brown as the witty Winifred.

Favorite characters in the production include Laura Kenny, who nearly steals the show as the cook, Mrs. Brill; Erik Gratton, who has great Monty Python comedic timing as the butler Robertson Ay and the park keeper; Nicole Beerman as the fabulous Mrs. Corry; Connie Corrick as the impoverished bird woman; Mary Jo Dugaw as the scary nanny Miss Andrew; and the talented dancer Nikolas Hagen as the statue Neleus.

Each ensemble member makes an important contribution to the overall professionalism of the production, which is especially true in the super number “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

If you want to introduce your children or grandchildren to musical theater, this is the production to see.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.

If you go

Village Theatre’s “Mary Poppins,” Jan. 9 to Feb. 8, Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave. For tickets, call the box office at 425-257-8600, or go to www.villagetheatre.org/everett/Mary-Poppins.