Saturday 17th December 2016, after a long week in work I’m finally back at the Millenium Centre here in Cardiff Bay, for a couple of performances of Mary Poppins. Been so looking forward to seeing this production, I’ve heard so many brilliant reviews. This is another show I have never seen before, the last time I saw the film version was probably 20 years ago, so you could say this is new for me. So let’s see what I think about this show.

Oh my god, what a totally fabulous show, I have no idea where to start. Lucky I’m seeing it a few times. So much to talk about. The cast comes first, I think. And what a cast. Zizi Strallen is just magnificent as Mary Poppins, her voice is superb, her dancing skills are superb, she just looks like a Mary Poppins should look like. Burt is played expertly by Matt Lee, who again, is just brilliant, so charismatic and full of charm. And a great dancer to go with it.

The Banks family, again fabulously played by Neil Roberts as mr Banks with Rebecca Lock as mrs Banks. Rebecca has such a beautiful voice, it’s pleasure to sit and listen to her and Zizi singing to a huge crowd at this amazing theatre. The children were excellent with Violet Tucker playing Jane Banks and Finley Miller playing Michael Banks,(for the matinee), and Verity Biggs as Jane with Lewis Fernee as Michael, (for the evening performance). 

Moving to the servants with mrs Brill played wonderfully by a fabulous actress in Wendy Ferguson and Robertson played by Blair Anderson. Two other voices of brilliance come to mind, that of the Bird Woman played by Grainne Renihan and miss Andrew by Penelope Woodman, just magnificent. As all the voices are for the whole show.

The set was probably the best I’ve seen for a musical, so much going on all the time, so colourful and spectacular, adding so much to the brilliance of the whole production. As I said earlier, so much to talk about, and for me, many shows to come, to split up the different aspects of this wonderful musical.

In all, a brilliant musical extravaganza, full of everything you could ever want on a theatre stage. Honestly cannot wait to see this again, So so good.