It took Walt Disney twenty years to make the film of MARY POPPINS, from the time he first tried to secure the film rights to its triumphant premiere in 1964. The film was an immediate and phenomenal success, earning universal acclaim. The film played to an estimated 200 million people when it was released, engendering extraordinary affection in its audiences, and has remained one of Disney's most enduring and best-loved films.
MARY POPPINS creator Pamela Lyndon (P.L.) Travers was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Australia on August 9, 1899. While touring as a theatre actress, Pamela began publishing poems, articles, and stories; which led to a career in journalism. It was in 1934, while living in England, that she wrote the first of six books featuring Mary Poppins. When publishing, Pamela used only her initials, hiding her gender to avoid being dismissed as an archetypal female author of children's books. Travers wrote a number of other adult books, including The Fox at the Manger, Friend Monkey, and About the Sleeping Beauty. Pamela Travers passed away on April 23, 1996.
Additional casting and information for MARY POPPINS on Broadway will be announced at a future date.
DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS, a unit of BUENA VISTA THEATRICAL GROUP, operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher. Disney's hit productions of Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King, and Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida, have been presented in 40 international productions that have been seen by over 60 million people worldwide – making Disney one of the world's largest producers of live theatre. Disney's newest musical, TARZANâ, is currently in previews at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre for a May 10 opening. Mary Poppins, in partnership with Cameron Mackintosh, is now playing at London's Prince Edward Theatre, and will arrive on Broadway in October 2006. Further information about productions can be found at www.disneyonbroadway.com
Cameron Mackintosh produced his first musical 37 years ago and since then has produced hundreds of productions all over the world including Cats, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera, the three longest running musicals in Broadway history, Miss Saigon, Little Shop of Horrors, Side By Side By Sondheim, Follies, Martin Guerre, The Witches of Eastwick, and acclaimed revivals of My Fair Lady, Oliver! and Oklahoma! For the last 25 years it has been Cameron's long-standing ambition to produce a stage musical of Mary Poppins and he was delighted to bring this to fruition with Disney in December 2004. He owns seven theatres in London's West End – the Prince of Wales, Gielgud, Queens, Wyndhams, Albery, Novello and the Prince Edward that is now home to Mary Poppins. In 1995 his company received The Queen's Award for Export Achievement and he was knighted in the 1996 New Year's Honours for his services to British Theatre. He is President of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and in 1990 he endowed the Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford where he is also an Honorary Fellow and Member of the Court of Benefactors.
http://www.DisneyOnBroadway.com
