#TBT: "Step [Back] In Time" With The Opening Night of MARY POPPINS On Broadway!

With Mary Poppins Returns coming to movie theaters next week, I thought the perfect #TBT would be a look back at the Opening Night of Mary Poppins on Broadway. So I dove back into the BroadwayWorld archives and found the 2006 video (when we were formerly known as BroadwayBeat) with Ashley Brown, straight from starring as 'Belle' Beauty and the Beast on Broadway! And lets not forget Gavin Lee who made his Broadway debut with Mary Poppins. Enjoy the video!

Mary Poppins arrived at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre in a musical so extraordinarily enchanting that, like critics, audiences had just one word for it: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Based on P.I. Travers' cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, MARY POPPINS, one of London's biggest sensations, features The Sherman Brothers' original Academy Award-winning songs. In collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, the show was created by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who wrote the book, and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.

Olivier Award-winning director Richard Lyre lead a dream team of vision and stagecraft, bringing to life the story of the Banks family and their magical nanny. Co-direction and choreography was by Olivier Award-winner Matthew Bourne, set and costume design was by Tony Award winner Bob Crowley, co-choreography was by Olivier Award-winner Stephen Mear, and lighting design was by Olivier Award-winner Howard Harrison.

MARY POPPINS marked the first collaboration between Disney, producer of such acclaimed productions as THE LION KING, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, TARZAN, THE LITTLE MERMAID, NEWSIES, ALADDIN & FROZEN and Cameron Mackintosh, legendary producer of record-breaking shows THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, CATS and LES MISERABLES.