Review: Global Jaya's Mary Poppins Jr. is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

On February 14 and 15, 2025, the private school Global Jaya staged a production of Mary Poppins Jr. at their theater. This show was directed by teacher Mutiara Fallahdani and featured a cast of the school’s students from elementary through high school. The Broadwayworld Indonesia team was invited to watch show 3, which took place on Saturday afternoon.

Mary Poppins Jr. is the junior version of the stage musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film. It features original music and lyrics by The Sherman Brothers, with new songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The book was penned by Julian Fellowes.

The story largely follows the film’s plot, It’s set in London and around the Banks family, particularly the mischievous siblings Jane (Jemma in Show 3, Evolette and Aimee in Show 1 and 2) and Michael Banks (Maru). They live with their mother Winifred (Pippa), a steadfast homemaker, and their father George (Atov), an emotionally distant banker.

Jane and Michael’s various antics are too much to handle for their nannies, who keep resigning one after another. Until the east wind blows and a mysterious nanny by the name of Mary Poppins (Nadine) arrives at their doorstep.

Mary Poppins is a self-proclaimed ‘practically perfectly’ nanny who’s able to keep up with the rambunctious Jane and Michael, putting her foot down as needed and instilling a sense of discipline into them. 

She also introduces the children to Bert (Alisha), a happy-go-lucky chimney sweep who leads a dirty, yet merry, band of sweeps. Together, the four of them go on wondrous adventures, with magic and singing statues.

The family goes through a moment of adversity when George’s job is put in jeopardy and Mary Poppins leaves to let the Banks sort their problems out as a family. To fill in the void, George summons his terrifying former nanny, Miss Andrew (Dara). She traumatizes the children with her insufferable, shouty ways of disciplining them.

Together with Bert, Jane and Michael fly a kite that summons Mary Poppins back. She confronts Miss Andrew and drives her off. Meanwhile, George receives news that his decision is set to make the bank a lot of profit, and, thanks to Winifred’s firm reassurance, the two of them negotiate a pay raise for George.

The Banks family comes out of their ordeals stronger than ever. Seeing that her job is done, Mary Poppins finally leaves, riding the wind using her iconic umbrella.

Mary Poppins is a well-loved title, although people are more likely to be familiar with the 1964 movie version instead of the stage version, which debuted in 2006. Furthermore, the licensing of the Jr. version was only made available a scant 8 years ago in 2017.

Personally, I am only familiar with the film version. Thankfully, even the Jr. version of Mary Poppins doesn’t get lost in translation. The most iconic numbers are there – A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Feed the Birds, etc. The script does have some changes, including making Winifred Banks a more substantial role by giving her an internal conflict that’s rooted in her role as the mother of the family, streamlining and clarifying George’s workplace problem, and introducing the character of Miss Andrew. But all in all, it’s a more focused story about the Banks’s family dynamics with the extraneous numbers cut out.

The student cast of Global Jaya executed this script with a surprisingly adept, polished performance. The first thing I noticed is their dedication in maintaining a natural-sounding British accent (leaning towards Received Pronunciation) while delivering the lines clearly. This is a significant concern, since there have been many local English-language productions in recent years that are impeded by unclear diction, lessening audience enjoyment and understanding of the material. This was mostly not a problem for the show, although some of Miss Andrew’s lines were lost in the mix due to them being screamed

Furthermore, several of the leading performances are outstanding for a junior production. Jemma as Jane has a sharp yet still childlike delivery that works wonderfully whenever she’s facing her aloof dad. Maru’s Michael bounces every which way vivaciously like a jovial gremlin, and a joy to watch. And Alisha as Bert brings great vigor whenever she appears, with lithe physicality and an attitude that’s impossible to dislike.

But the biggest revelation of the show are Nadine as Mary Poppins and Pippa as Winifred. Mary Poppins is a difficult role, since the play’s whole conceit hinges on her being an almost otherworldly role model figure. Nadine successfully accomplished this considerable task, bringing a practically perfect interpretation of Mary Poppins, equal parts dignified and charming. She has an undeniable charisma that makes it easy to see why the unruly children would both love and respect her.

And Pippa as Winifred brought a mature, worldly bearing required of the role. She is able to succinctly display the internal conflict inside Winifred through subtle exacting movements before bringing the house down with her solo of Being Mrs. Banks. These leading ladies are truly a force to be reckoned with.

Global Jaya’s Mary Poppins Jr. also made good use of the ensemble during group numbers. A pitfall that junior shows often fall to is cramming dozens upon dozens of children on the stage, making the show too crowded and even difficult to watch. But the creative team showed remarkable restraint, making sure that each group number has clean blocking and clear purpose for each ensemble member. The singing is quite pleasant and the dancing is enjoyable, although not groundbreaking.

As for the artistic design, the set and lighting are definitely serviceable enough (especially for a school production). They look quite charmingly DIY. But the quality of the performances is great enough that a more extravagant set or more dramatic, specific lighting wouldn’t have looked out of place. In addition to the physical set pieces, the show also utilizes projection on the back wall. There were some neat tricks as sometimes the projection is animated to give the projection more life. But the interaction between the projection and physical set could’ve been planned better; first, the projection looked a bit washed due to the stage lighting, and second, there were times where the set and projection depicted the same thing – giving the impression that the Banks have two fireplaces on the same wall at their home.

Overall, Mary Poppins Jr. was perhaps the best junior production I’ve seen. Most of the cast put on polished, consistent performances that are beyond their age, with a few outstanding stars on top of that. Although the set and lighting could’ve been better, the show was overall a jolly good time – a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious performance, if you will.

Broadwayworld Indonesia is a media partner of Mary Poppins Jr. by Global Jaya.

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