Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins
Milton Keynes Theatre (UK Tour)
Review Complete
“A spoon full of brilliance”
31st October 2025
What an utterly brilliant night watching Mary Poppins at Milton Keynes Theatre last night! Everything from the wonderful cast to dynamic sets and atmospheric lighting combined to make a magical evening for the audience who, judging by the crazy reception at the end of the show, enjoyed their evening immensely!
Although its been around for a number of years now, this was my first viewing of the the show and I didn’t realise how different it would be from the two Mary Poppins films. Most of the original songs were there plus a number of new ones, written by musical theatre luminaries Stiles and Drew, that fitted in perfectly. However, a lot of those songs took place in different location to the film, so no dancing penguins! But these settings were equally wonderful!
There were excellent performances from the entire cast, lead by Stephanie Jones in the iconic role of Mary. She played the part in the Australian production and won the Sydney Theatre Award for Leading Lady in a Musical! Very well deserved! Jack Chambers, a truly triple threat performer, was a dynamic Burt. He was an amazing dancer and, no spoilers, but look out for his incredible trick dancing! The Banks family, Michael D Xavier as George, Lucie-Mae Sumner as Winifred, Connie Jones as Jane and Oli Manning as Michael were all excellent - particularly Connie and Oli who were rarely off stage throughout the entire show. Rosemary Ashe, who I saw some years ago as Carlotta in the original production of The Phantom of the Opera played the family’s cook, Mrs Brill, and she hasn’t lost her touch! A dynamic and funny performance!
We were also treated to the iconic Patti Boulaye as The Bird Woman! But probably the maddest performance of the evening came from Wendy Ferguson as Miss Andrew! She was evil and funny with a ridiculously high soprano voice and I absolutely loved her!
The production values were very high with stunning lighting and spectacular special effects! And the end of the show took everyone’s breath away!
Mary Poppins is on at Milton Keynes until 22nd November and I shall definitely be booking tickets to see it again with some of the children in my family so book quickly to avoid disappointment.T his show is magnificent!!!
Reviewer: Julia Rufey
Photography: Danny Kaan
We are Gifted tickets so that in return we may give an honest review. All comments are those of the reviewer and theirs alone.