PG | 2h 10min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 19 December 2018
Decades after her original visit, the magical nanny returns to help the Banks siblings and Michael's children through a difficult time in their lives.
Director: Rob Marshall
Stars: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, David Warner.
John DeLuca ... choreographer
Tara Nicole Hughes ... associate choreographer
Rob Marshall ... choreographer
Marlon Pelayo ... assistant choreographer
Joey Pizzi ... Co-Choreographer
attended 11am show on the last day at Triangle Square theatre; fewer than 10 people, at least 2 were children. My experience there was marred by my seat vibrating from time to time; I worried that it was seismic activity, and the theatre is upstairs.
14 songs in the Soundtracks (4 are reprises), 13 are Music by Marc Shaiman, Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman.
This felt like someone made an inventory of the '64 film, and created equivalent characters/plotlines/musical numbers for the new film.
- 2 "parents" (actually siblings here); the sister is a labor organizer instead of a suffragette, the brother is an artist who's a teller at the bank where his father worked
- 3 children (up from 2)
- 1 housekeeper (down from 2)
- 1 magical nanny (the same one, in a different body)
- 1 villainous banker (plus 1 nice lawyer and 1 not so nice)
- 1
chimneysweep lamplighter (who worked with the sweep as a child)
- the "parents" and children need emotional help: the mother died within the last year
- the bank is calling in the mortgage taken out on the house after mom died
- fly a kite
- magically clean up a room
- magical trip in the bath
- magical trip into a drawing (here on a Royal Doulton bowl)
- dance with penguins
- dance with the
chimneysweeps lamplighters
- appearance of the ancient banker (DV) to resolve things
feed the birds, fly the balloon
Didn't remember if this corresponds to a '64 film event, but here we get a song at the repair shop of EB's cousin (MS). Missing: spoonful of sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (but MS's name is a bit long).
Visually interesting, mostly well-paced (I looked at my watch twice: ~55min and ~100min). But EB (b. '83) doesn't have the sparkle/warmth/charm of JA (b. '35) in '63/4. LM (b. '80) doesn't have the dancing chops of DV (b. '25), who played Dawes senior in '64 and Junior in '18.
On the other hand AL's (b. '25) balloon song/production number was much more fun than Feed the Birds, but I don't remember the tune, and I can't forget FtB's tune.
The chimneysweep dance (Step in Time) had more danger (even if they weren't really on rooftops, they did lower themselves into chimneys), while the lamplighters spent a lot of time swinging around lampposts at ground level (although some road bikes BMX-style.)
I'll want a copy for my collection, but neither Amazon nor B&N offer physical media pre-orders. not even a place to sign up for a notification when something becomes available. And the film has been out 7 weeks. Using Google Shopping: Target and Best Buy are the only retailers; no release date listed.
Rated 7.2 (32,276)
Disney & more, dir. Marshall; 7
