Laura Michelle Kelly and Christian Borle to Star in MARY POPPINS on Broadway Starting October 12

Broadway's perfectly magical musical MARY POPPINS is pleased to welcome the West End's original ‘Mary', Olivier Award winner LAURA MICHELLE KELLY, and Tony® Award nominee CHRISTIAN BORLE (Broadway's Legally Blonde) beginning Monday, October 12 at 7pm. Produced by Thomas Schumacher of Disney Theatrical Productions and Cameron Mackintosh, MARY POPPINS will celebrate its three-year anniversary at the New Amsterdam Theatre (214 West 42nd Street) on Monday, November 16.

Laura Michelle Kelly returns to Broadway after earning rave reviews and garnering the Olivier Award for her performance as the original Mary Poppins in the 2004 West End premiere of the show (she played the role for more than 400 performances in the UK until October 2005). Kelly made her Broadway debut as one of Tevye's daughters in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof with Alfred Molina. She made her feature film debut as Lucy Barker opposite Johnny Depp in the musical Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton (2007). Last year, Kelly starred opposite Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum in the Old Vic's acclaimed production of Speed-the-Plow. Other West End credits include Eliza in My Fair Lady, Galadrial in Lord of the Rings, Sophie in Mamma Mia, Swallow in Whistle Down the Wind, Eponine in Les Miserables, Wendy in Peter Pan and an 'enchanted object' in Disney's Beauty and the Beast at age 17. Kelly will appear with the permission of Actors' Equity Association (AEA). The producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

Christian Borle will star as Bert. He earned Tony®, Drama Desk and Drama League nominations for his performance as Emmett Forrest in the Broadway premiere of Legally Blonde. In 2005, he earned a Drama Desk nomination for his performance as Prince Herbert in Monty Python's Spamalot. Earlier this year, Borle appeared in a workshop production of Peter and the Starcatchers, part of the La Jolla Playhouse Page To Stage program, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. Borle made his Broadway debut in Footloose (1999) and starred as Jimmy in the Tony Award®-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003).

Current stars SCARLETT STRALLEN (Mary) and ADAM FIORENTINO (Bert) will play their final performance on Sunday, October 11.

Kelly and Borle will be joined by new cast members JEFF BINDER (‘Zazu' in The Lion King) as Mr. Banks, JENNY GALLOWAY (reprising her role from the West End production) as Mrs. Brill and MICHAEL McCARTY as Admiral Boom, returning to the role he created on Broadway.

REBECCA LUKER continues to star as Mrs. Banks alongside ANN ARVIA as Bird Woman, MARK PRICE as Robertson Ay and RUTH GOTTSCHALL as Miss Andrew.

JULIETTE ALLEN ANGELO, ALEXANDRA BERRO and CASSADY LEONARD alternate as Jane Banks; JEREMIAH KISSANE, MATTHEW SCHECHTER and ANDREW SHIPMAN alternate as Michael Banks.

Consistently among the top-grossing shows on Broadway, MARY POPPINS has played over 1000 performances - a milestone reached by only a rare few number of shows in Broadway history. The production has been seen by more than 1.9 million theatergoers and grossed over $ 154 million to date.

The MARY POPPINS national tour, headlined by original Broadway stars Ashley Brown and Gavin Lee, premiered in Chicago on March 11, 2009, opening to critical praise from the city's top theatrical critics. The national tour continues its high-flying success with enormous box office grosses and an itinerary that includes 2009 engagements at the Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas and the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston. In November, the national tour flies ‘Mary' home to Hollywood with an extended 13-week engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles (performing through February 2010). Future engagements in 2010 to be announced.

Simultaneously, the show's popularity grows around the globe. Following a successful three year run (December 2004 - January 2008) at the Prince Edward Theatre on London's West End, a U.K. tour of MARY POPPINS commenced in summer 2008 and concluded its acclaimed run in April 2009. The Australian production of MARY POPPINS will premiere in July 2010 at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne.

An open-ended run of MARY POPPINS will take residence at the Circus Theatre, opening in April 2010 in Scheveningen, Holland, outside of Amsterdam. MARY POPPINS will be produced in Holland by Stage Entertainment, in association with Disney and Cameron Mackintosh.

LAURA MICHELLE KELLY (Mary Poppins). Theatre: Karen, Speed-the-Plow with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum (dir. Matthew Warchus, The Old Vic London); originated the role of Mary Poppins in the West End (Olivier Award); Eliza, My Fair Lady; Eponine, Les Miserables; Galadrial, Lord of the Rings; Sophie, Mamma Mia!; Hodel, Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway debut). Film: Tim Burton's musical Sweeney Todd.

CHRISTIAN BORLE (Bert) received the 2007 Tony®, Drama Desk and Drama League Award nominations for his work in Legally Blonde. Broadway: Spamalot (Clarence Derwent Award, Drama Desk nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie, Amour, Footloose, Jesus Christ Superstar. Off-Broadway: Elegies: A Song Cycle by William Finn at Lincoln Center. Regional: Peter and the Starcatchers at La Jolla Playhouse, Just So at North Shore, The Three Musketeers at AMT of San Jose. Film: The Bounty.

A co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, this stage production is based on P.L. Travers' cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film and includes the film's Academy Award®-winning music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The stage production was created, in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who wrote the book; Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre; and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.

TICKET INFORMATION & PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

MARY POPPINS ticket prices range from $31.50 - $121.50, and are available online at www.DisneyOnBroadway.com, in-person at the New Amsterdam Theatre Box Office (214 West 42nd Street) and all Ticketmaster outlets, or by calling Ticketmaster's Disney on Broadway hotline at 866-870-2717 (NOTE: Holiday pricing ranges from $31.50 - $131.50 at select performances).

Running time is approximately 2 hours, 40 minutes.