Review: Vive Les Arts Theatre Pursues the Magic of MARY POPPINS in Killeen, TX

The community driven, Vive Les Arts Theatre located in Killeen Texas, brings to life MARY POPPINS, in Vive Les Arts self-proclaimed "huge summer musical". We all know the traditional Mary Poppins story of family, discipline, and chimney sweeps, yet, however familiar this tale is, it's always refreshening to revisit the Banks on Cherry Tree Lane. Beginning with Bert (played by John Asbach), everyone's favorite chimney sweep, setting the scene for Jane (played by Joy Adams) and Michael (played by Jonathan Dominguez), as they adventure with Mary Poppins (played by Heidi Lewis) through the streets of turn of the century England. As two very misbehaved children, their distracted mother Winifred Banks (played by Carlie Jo Hill) can't seem to keep a nanny for longer than a few weeks. Adding insult to injury, George Banks (played by Jeremy Stallings) is a classic distracted father aloof and unconcerned with his family. George places value on his money more than anything, showing the audience that adults have lessons to learn as well. As the winds change, Marry Poppins storms in without notice, and begins teaching the children that, "anything is possible if you let it". The journey continues with moving statues and larger than life set pieces that add a new and different spin to this timeless classic directed by Hayley Dugger. Presented in front of a buzzing community audience, the cast of MARY POPPINS entertained the locals with their adaptation of this joyful musical.

Highlighting the better performances is the show, we must look to Heidi Lewis in her role as Mary Poppins. She embodied the cute quirks and mannerisms a character like Ms. Poppins would showcase, as well as serving as the driving wedge within this story. Her discipline and quick wit with the Banks scored the loudest laughs and and the audience response seemed to add more of a spark to her performancE. Lewis's singing talent was fantastic as she navigated through her numbers and took to the skies in her departure. Perfectly matched to Lewis' talent was the 'nasty nanny' Miss Andrew (played by April Stevens Kessler). Their big scene together, one could interpret as a 'sing-off', with the evenly matched ladies displaying similarly impressive pipes and acting caliber. Their operatic 'battle' onstage during Brimstone and Treacle was entertaining and did well to engage the audience back into the story.

The ensemble reminds theatre goers why community theatre is so important. Their energy and spark engaged the audience during the fantastic musical numbers, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Step In Time and my favorite, Chim Chim Cher-ee. Choreographer Samantha Harper hid the fantastic tap number halfway through the show, displaying the raw talent and power of this ensemble. These musical numbers with the committed dancers brought the magic to the stage with their continuous and audacious choreography. This break from the story served as a highlight for the young and adult Audience members. Storytelling, unfortunately was lacking in this rendition of Mary Poppins, as young people in the audience are not entertained by long set changes of impressively large set pieces. Running 3 hours curtain to curtain, Vive Les Arts would have done better focusing the fluidity onstage within MARY POPPINS, and not the scenery where it takes place.

The performances from the actors are charming yet reminiscent of community theatre biting off a bit more than they could chew, technically. There was clearly a lot of heart and effort put into the production, but most lacked performance technique making for awkward and unexpected moments on stage. Regarding the stage production of the show, scenery changes were frightening at times and became chaotic. Sets accidentally hitting each other, early entrances, and continuous audio issues were distracting and took away from the magic of MARY POPPINS. Despite these difficulties, actor John Asbach flew high through the air impressively flipping and added some nice sight gags for the young Audience members. Overall, this show's heart is to be appreciated and brought nostalgic and fun moments to the community of Killeen Texas, even if occasionally challenged. Return to jolly old England, take your spoonful of sugar, and go see MARY POPPINS, flying into Vive Les Arts Theatre!

MARY POPPINS:

VIVE LES ARTS THEATRE

3401 SOUTH W.S. YOUNG DRIVE

KILLEEN, TX 76542

JULY 22ND - 24TH

JULY 29TH - 31ST

Photo Credit: Vive Les Arts Theatre

http://www.vlakilleen.org

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