Wednesday 28th December 2016, back at the Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay, for two more performances of the brilliant Mary Poppins. This afternoons show is another milestone for me, as it’s my 100th performance of a show, at the Centre, this year.

For today’s matinee we have Verity Biggs playing Jane Banks and Lewis Furnee as Michael Banks. The evening performance has Violet Tucker as Jane Banks with Finley Miller as Michael Banks. Both sets of children were quite amazing today. Just so good in everything they did, another real treat to watch.

Today I’m going to continue talking about the songs in the show, focusing on act two. As act two begins we see the Banks family getting ready for another nanny, with a reprise of ‘Cherry tree lane’, before the entrance of Miss Andrew (Penelope Woodman), with’Brimstone and Treacle’, really well sung by Penelope, who has a tremendous operatic voice, totally suited to the part, a real treat to listen to her sing.

As the children run away from the dreaded Miss Andrew, they bump into Bert in the park, where another iconic song begins. ‘Lets go fly a kite’, is again beautifully sung, by the cast, bringing another small tear to my eyes. At the end of the song we find Mary Poppins returns,holding a floating kite. We are then treated to another beautiful song, ‘Being Mrs Banks’, sung to absolute perfection by Rebecca Lock, another cast member with an amazing voice to her repertoire, again another treat to savour in this excellent production.

Back at the house Mary meets up with Miss Andrew, duetting to a reprise of ‘Brimstone and Treacle’, as usual superbly sung by both, another treat to listen to.  As Miss Andrew leaves, Mary and the Children sing ‘Practically Perfect’, before heading up to the roof to meet Burt, now a chimney sweep. They perform another brilliant song ‘Step in Time’. The music is played magnificently by the orchestra,as the ensemble, Burt, Mary and the children sing this beautiful song. This is another of my favourites, and sung so well, brings tears to my eyes, again. So much goes on during this song, fabulous singing and amazing dance routines throughout, making this such a wonderful scene to watch and listen to.

As the end of the show approaches, the company come together for ‘Anything can happen’, another stunning scene, with so many amazing voices happening all at once, beautiful to hear. As the show ends with Mary flying off into the distance the company come together for the finale, and another fabulous rendition of ‘Supercalifragalisic’, finishes  the show, to wild applause from an extremely contented audience.

Zizi Strallen is just magnificent as Mary, as I’ve been saying since show number one. Also Matt Lee as Burt is just so good, a great voice ,lots of fun and a great dancer to add to his all his other attributes.

One other voice we only hear fleetingly is that of Mr Banks played by Neil Roberts. I thought he had an excellent singing voice and would have liked to hear more throughout the show. What we did hear was another treat, singing his part wonderfully, with ‘precision and order’,’A man has dreams’ and ‘Good for nothing’.

Today’s performances were of the highest quality, as usual, just want to see every show possible before it’s run ends in Cardiff.