MARY POPPINS to Premiere in Holland in April 2010

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh are pleased to announce an open-ended run of Mary Poppins which will take residence at the Circus Theatre in Scheveningen, Holland, outside of Amsterdam.  The production will open in April, 2010 and will take up residence at the Circus Theatre following TARZAN’S record setting run there.  Mary Poppins will be produced by Joop van den Ende Theatreproductions/Stage Entertainment, Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s producing partner in Holland.

Producer Mackintosh says: “Mary Poppins has always had an extraordinary hold over audiences around the world. First with P.L. Travers’ books in the 1930’s then Walt Disney’s magical film in 1964 and now with the musical I was inspired to produce with Disney and that has proved an acclaimed smash-hit in London and on Broadway. Despite being a classic tale, the stories of Mary Poppins have proved to have had timely lessons for our turbulent contemporary times. Pamela Travers wrote the original stories a few years after the 1929 crash and little did she know that 75 years on many families around the world would be going through the same troubles as the Banks family do when the bank Mr Banks works for is in danger of collapse. I am delighted to be once again working with my long time collaborator Joop van den Ende. It’s now over 20 years since we first did CATS together in Amsterdam and subsequently my original productions of LES MISERABLES (that is still playing in Rotterdam and is about to transfer to Amsterdam for a limited season), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and MISS SAIGON.”

Thomas Schumacher, President of Disney Theatrical Productions and Co-producer of Mary Poppins, says “I mirror Cameron’s feelings about working with Joop again, and the relevance of our show for today.  I know that the three of us will enjoy the experience of recreating Mary Poppins for Dutch audiences.  Our Disney film is beloved in Holland and I am sure it will play beautifully in the Circus Theatre. Our current production of TARZAN has been a great success there and we look forward to our next collaboration with Stage Entertainment.”

Mary Poppins, Holland will be the fifth production of the show, with a sixth planned for Australia in 2010.  The musical opened on Broadway in 2006 and will celebrate its second anniversary in November of this year.  A UK tour was recently launched and is garnering critical and box office success and a US tour begins in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in March, 2009 and will hit other cities including St. Louis and Dallas before taking flight in Los Angeles at the end of the year.

DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS (DTP), a division of Disney Theatrical Group, operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher and is among the world’s most successful commercial theatre enterprises.  Reaching a global annual audience of more than 10 million people in over 40 countries, DTP produces and licenses Broadway musicals around the world including Grammy®, Tony® and Olivier-award winning The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida, TARZAN ® and Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh which is about to launch its national touring engagement.  Its most recent Broadway production, The Little Mermaid, debuted in 2007 and immediately became a Broadway sensation.  That same year, DTP launched the professional touring stage version of Disney’s High School Musical.  In addition, DTP licenses musical titles for local schools and community productions through Musical Theatre International and on its recently launched website, DisneyMusicals.com.

Disney Theatrical Group also delivers live entertainment around the world through its partnership with Feld Entertainment, producer of Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!, including High School Musical: The Ice Tour and Playhouse Disney Live!

Cameron Mackintosh (Producer and Co-Creator) has been producing for over 40 years, during which time he has put on hundreds of productions including Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera – the three longest-running musicals in Broadway history – and Miss Saigon.  He also produced Little Shop of Horrors, Side by Side by Sondheim, Follies, Martin Guerre and The Witches of Eastwick as well as acclaimed revivals of My Fair Lady,  Oklahoma! and Oliver! which is about to re-open in a huge new production at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane starring Rowan Atkinson as Fagin.  Mary Poppins is a subject that he has wanted to do with Disney for more than 30 years.   In 2006 Les Misérables overtook Cats to become the longest-running musical in the world.    The masterpiece, MY FAIR LADY will be his first film project.  Cameron owns seven theatres in London’s West End all but one of which have been spectacularly restored.  In 1990 he inaugurated the Cameron Mackintosh Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University where he is also an Honorary Fellow and Member of the Court of Benefactors - the current professor is Kevin Spacey.   He is President of the RoyAl Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, an Honorary Doctor of Literature at UCL and holds an Honorary Fellowship at Trinity College of Music.   In 1992 he was presented with the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, and in 2002 he was given the Oscar Hammerstein Award.  His company received the 1995 Queen’s Award for Export Achievement, in 2006 he received the Award for his Outstanding Contribution to British Tourism and he was knighted in the 1996 New Year’s Honours for his services to British theatre.

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