Group sales have begun for MARY POPPINS on Broadway. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and
Cameron Mackintosh, MARY POPPINS is based on the stories by P.L. Travers and the 1964 Walt Disney film. It will begin performances on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre (Broadway at West 42nd Street) Saturday, October 14, 2006 and open on Thursday, November 16, 2006. MARY POPPINS will continue its record-breaking run at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End.
To purchase group tickets, contact Disney on Broadway Groups at 212-703-1040 or 800-439-9000. Single tickets will go on sale to Visa® cardholders on May 21st 2006 and to the general public on June 11th, 2006. For more information about Mary Poppins visit www.marypoppins.com.
MARY POPPINS features many of the original songs from the film, with music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who won two Oscars for the film Mary Poppins. The new stage production features new songs and additional music and lyrics by Olivier Award-winners George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The production has been created in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh.
Director Richard Eyre leads the award-winning creative team assembled for MARY POPPINS with co-direction and choreography by Olivier Award winner Matthew Bourne. MARY POPPINS features a book by Oscar-winner Julian Fellowes, set and costume design is by Tony Awardâ winner Bob Crowley, co-choreography by Olivier Award winner Stephen Mear, lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Andrew Bruce, orchestrations by William David Brohn, and musical supervision by David Caddick.
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.
Casting and additional 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 has been seen by over 60 million people worldwide—making DTP one of the world's largest producers of live theatre. Disney's newest musical, TARZANâ, will have its world premiere at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre in May 2006. 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 35 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.
