Does anyone know how Mary slides up the stairs? And how does Mary first appear at the Bank's house?


This board seems to be running really slow, considering Mary Poppins is a quite a good show.

I do believe I saw the bit about Mary sliding up the stairs in Gavin's little 'behind the scenes' spiel on...broadway.com, I do believe it was. (If not, it was broadwayworld.com) Check there.

Basically though, there's like...a little seat she sits on and it goes up the railing using some sort of machine operated mechanism.

I saw that interview aswell, but it didn't tell you how she did it. I'll watch it again.

Yeah the bannister has a small perch seat mounted in it, which Mary places her leg on. I wish she'd slid up the stairs like in the movie though, hehe.

Sadly a few people miss that superb effect due to the action going on with the cage and Miss Andrew.

As for Mary's first appearance, it's kinda simple really, the audience are distracted by the Banks' looking up at all the falling rose petals, and they move to the front of the stage, and are front lit, but behind them is quite dark, as they do this, they huddle together to hide Mary coming up through a trapdoor behind them (the same one that Miss Andrew vanishes into)

^ Oh, that makes perfect sense with the entrance. It's quite easy and simple come to think of it. I was looking for doors and places she could have ran on from. At first, I thought she flew in.

Can anyone explain theflight tracks for her audience flight.

(The one thing I ahte about Mary Poppins is I want to know all the SFX.)

I think it's just a harness and a pulley. One time I sat in the circle near to where Mary flew over. You could see the wire that was attached to her harness, and there was another wire at an angle of about 45 degrees attached to that pulling her forward.

Cool, but I meant what are the tracks that the wire is attached to.

She comes from the back wing flying towards stage left and then flies foward and flies into the audience. Can anyone explain what the tracks look like and where she ends up?

well their are mechanicals that are on the banister, she puts on a belt thats camiflogued and she hooks it to the mechanics on the banister and she slides up. and when she comes in she either comes in regular when the lights are dark around the back area or a lift takes her up really fast

How fun would THAT be?

Man, if I weren't a guy I would totally want to be Mary Poppins on Broadway!! She gets to slide UP a bannister and fly over thousands of people every night...... lucky!

Maybe you can be the first drag Mary Poppins on Broadway. Not very Disney, though, is it?



Later days
David

She comes across the stage on the same track Bert uses for Step in Time - if you look up during the coda of that number, you can see the lines being re-set(and in the dialogue immediately after the wires are jangling like mad into the auditorium as they clip them together) and another pair of wires, clipped on a metre or so above her with the first set, pull her up into the bridge across the top of the auditorium. The last bit is masked with smoke(from the follow spot nearest her exit) and breakup gobos into the eyes of the audience, so it's really hard to follow her with your eyes. She lands on a platform, is pulled into the bridge, unclipped, then pelts it back down the the stage to make it on in time for her bow. Sometimes you can see that she's reined herself in just before hitting the wings, so she looks a bit more like she's been standing there waiting, and not only just made it back in time.

good to know thanks