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Published by The Journal Record – Read original article here.

Originally published on July 8, 2015

Around Town: MARY POPPINS takes flight, draws cheers

Oklahoma City’s Lyric Theatre has put another winner onstage at Civic Center Music Hall. Don’t miss this one, Mary Poppins, which ends Saturday. Call (405) 524-9312 or visit www.lyrictheatreokc.com before it’s sold out.

Congratulations go to director Joe Deer and congrats to Artistic Director Michael Baron for hiring him. Kudos to both entire cast and the entire behind-the-scenes crew, especially the person who “flew” Mary Poppins without a single hang-up. This production was rated perfect to everyone in the audience with cheers, claps, shouts, claps, laughs, claps … well, you get the idea.

Lindsie VanWinkle must be a real Mary Poppins; she was so perky, gentle, strong, kind. Her friend, the chimney sweep Bert, was portrayed flawlessly by Jeremy Benton. The two children who played Poppins’ charges handled their roles perfectly.

Addie Wagner, in the role of Jane Banks, had a special fan in the audience, her great-grandmother, who was spellbound for the whole play. Michael James, as her young brother, held his own on the perfect chart.

Their parents, Winnifred and George Banks, were portrayed by Melissa Griffith and Jonathan Beck Reed, always my favorite actor. A true comic with a great voice is Marilyn Govich as the grumpy, mean nanny who kept a lark in her bird cage.

If you’ve never seen this musical onstage or in a film, you probably have never heard the tune Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The entire cast not only sang it often, but danced while performing it! Such professionals!

The entire cast was talented as singers, dancers and actors and the settings were interesting as they changed backdrops from drawing room to city street to a lovely park, where two “statues” came to life and danced excellently.

The only weak spot seemed to be that the stage was empty too long for a couple of times, a minor problem.

Tickets are available by phone and online. The Lyric box office is at 1727 NW 16th St. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Just a note: In the 2016 season, Lyric will be doing my ever-favored musical, The Fantasticks, March 30 to April 17, 2016, at the Plaza Theatre. Don’t miss it.