The Making Of
P.L. TRAVERS FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE
by CAMERON MACKINTOSH
My introduction to Mary Poppins came 40 years ago from seeing Walt Disney's magical film - I'd just left school. Mary's character was so extraordinary I could never forget her or the wonderful Sherman brothers' songs. Intrigued enough to read the original book, I was surprised to find there were several of them and many more stories, characters and adventures than those in the film.
Shortly after P. L. Travers published the first Poppins book in 1934, Bea Lillie spoke to her about appearing as Mary on stage and in 1948, an 18 year old Stephen Sondheim wrote several songs for his own adaptation which was never completed. I first tried, unsuccessfully, to acquire the stage rights to Mary Poppins over 25 years ago, as did many other producers on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the next 15 years Mary always hovered about but it wasn't until 1993 that I was to finally meet her creator, Pamela Travers, who was by then 93 herself. Sitting in the window of her Chelsea house, in a street looking remarkably like Cherry Tree Lane, a frail but extremely alert and sharp old lady eyed me up and down and asked me lots of questions about her characters and what kind of musical I wanted to do on stage. When I started to dig for information I felt very like Michael and Jane Banks waiting to be told, "You'll do".
Over several meetings Pamela decided I could be trusted with her great creation (though she never admitted to creating Mary saying only that "Mary just arrived") and I was able to persuade her that a stage musical could only be created by combining her stories with the key ingredients and songs from the film to invent something completely new. Up till this point she had always insisted that any stage musical would have to have a new and different score, something I wasn't interested in pursuing. Her ambivalence about the film is well known but I always felt she liked more of it than she let on publicly. Certainly when she came to write an unproduced film sequel she was very happy for its setting to remain Edwardian rather than in the 1930's period of the books. Armed now with the possibility of joining the Travers' rights to the Disney rights during the 1990's I had several meetings with Michael Eisner and, though everyone thought it a good idea, the time wasn't right for it to happen. During the last 35 years of producing I've discovered that these kind of delays are usually a good thing. Fate deserves a huge amount of credit for the making of a successful show and, even though Disney and I had yet to come to an agreement, I was able to use the time immersing myself in the books and trying to find a theatrical structure.
Slowly a pattern emerged, many of the stories repeated a similar theme and I could see the possibility of combining stories to dramatise certain existing songs to give them a different narrative function than in the film. It was never going to be either possible or desirable to put on stage the films brilliant and innovative mix of live action and animation. Once again it was Pamela who gave me the clue of how to proceed. Peppered through all her stories and conversation were references to dance, which is the perfect theatrical form to deliver all the magical journeys outside Cherry Tree Lane. The other early decision came from realising that the only way I could reinvent the show musically would be to work with a song writing team who loved the Sherman brothers' songs and could write new material to compliment both them and the wit, style and imagination of P. L. Travers' dialogue. I had only one thought - George Stiles and Anthony Drewe who I had known for many years since we first worked together on the Kipling Just So Stories. They loved the idea and "on spec" sat down and wrote Practically Perfect - which they delivered to me in 1993 - and then waited patiently. I thought it was practically perfect and just the style I was looking for for the show. 
Nearly ten years passed and then in December 2001, like Mary out of the sky, someone very special came into my life. Tom Schumacher, head of Disney Theatrical, came to London, not to make a deal, but to find out what I had in mind. As I told him what I was searching for, it became obvious that we were both after the same thing; a show both familiar and surprising, that would merge the best of the books and the film into something new. The treatment I devised became a crude starting point for creating our show. Tom was equally enthusiastic about George and Anthony and very quickly the project gathered momentum. This kind of partnership was obviously unusual for Disney but I was to find out that Michael Eisner has a personal fondness for Mary Poppins which, despite outside scepticism, caused him to expedite our arrangements speedily.To move Mary forward we needed to have a book writer who would pull together the existing material but also seamlessly add his or her own style. Once again I remembered an old friend, Julian Fellowes. We had never worked together but I admired him as an actor and was delighted to discover, when Gosford Park came out, he was also a hugely talented writer. In his screenplay Julian was particularly skilful at pulling all the various strands of the narrative together and with a real sense of period and comic panache. The film convinced me that he was the perfect choice for our equally unusual task.
Next we required a very special blend of talents to stage the show. From the outset I always hoped Richard Eyre would be interested in directing Mary Poppins. He was immediately intrigued by the idea and the books proved irresistible to him, as did the unusual challenge of staging a show that was both the story of a family and an exuberant dance drama. In effect the show required two directors so I was relieved and delighted when Matthew Bourne and Richard agreed to work together to create the theatrical equivalent of the film's mix of live action and animation. We knew the range of the choreography needed to be very wide so another marriage was made between Stephen Mear and Matthew whose individual styles have proved so complimentary. For all of us the brilliantly imaginative Bob Crowley was the natural choice of designer to bring a unique look to these magical stories. Finally we assembled the rest of our team. Orchestrator Bill Brohn, lighting designer Howard Harrison, sound designer Andrew Bruce and production musical supervisor David Caddick have all contributed to the success of many of my previous productions. With Richard leading such an experienced team, Tom and I knew the show could not be in better hands. 
In January 2003 we started. At first I commuted between Julian and George and Anthony until we had enough material to start combining dialogue and songs. I had set George and Anthony the task of writing "a song a week" which miraculously they nearly adhered to! Soon the three of them were working together, egged on by regular interference from me. Every few weeks we would meet and submit our efforts to the scrutiny of Richard, Matthew, Tom and Bob and then go off and do our homework aiming for a read through of the first draft of the show in September 2003. The read through proved that we had a show. George and Anthony's new material was seamlessly interwoven with the original Sherman brothers' songs. You couldn't tell who had written what and the Sherman brothers were both delighted and supportive.From the outset Tom and I wanted to find a cast that had star quality but who were not necessarily household names. The stars of the film, Julie Andrews, Dick van Dyke, David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns, are a tough act to follow; our task was to find fresh talents who, hopefully, will become the stars of tomorrow. The cast that we found has more than fulfilled our dreams.
Traditionally new musicals used to open out of Town before they came to London or Broadway. Nowadays it rarely happens either for economic reasons or because the show is not a draw until it has been the latest "smash hit" in town. With Mary Poppins we felt we would attract an audience for a pre London run and very much welcomed the chance of bringing the show to life at the Bristol Hippodrome. Bristol audiences have always been tremendously supportive of musicals and when I was at school in Bath I remember seeing many great productions there. In 1954 one famous Bristol musical SALAD DAYS (which was also concerned with magical happenings in a London Park) was fated to inspire me at the age of eight to become a Producer of musicals. I never dreamt that 50 years later I would have the chance to bring Pamela's stories to the stage. It wouldn't have happened without the support of the Trustees of the Travers' Estate and Michael Eisner and the hugely pleasurable collaboration with Tom Schumacher who is the embodiment of Mary Poppins dictum that "anything can happen if you let it."When Pamela was a little girl living in rural Queensland, Australia, she was an avid reader of fairy stories from the family's collection of books, her favourites being by the Brothers Grimm. So much so that she called all fairy stories 'Grims' and it became the family nickname for story telling. Putting Pamela's own stories on stage nearly a hundred years later has been anything but grim. We've all had the most terrific and exhilarating time. On the day Richard first started putting the rehearsed scenes together I heard him exclaim, "This is a real tonic" - I like to think Pamela Travers would have thought so too.
Cameron Mackintosh September 2004