Mary Poppins

At the end of last year my mom surprised my grandma, sister, and oldest niece with an afternoon at the theatre to see Mary Poppins. Each enthusiastic review, from the youngest to the oldest, ended with you MUST go see it. It immediately became an item on the list of experiences.

But before I get into that, let’s start with how our evening started, dinner. We went to my favorite French bistro style restaurant, Gaslight, for their restaurant week menu. Overall, the meal was a solid B, a bit below previous experiences. The appetizers and French bread were great. My main was a bit of a misstep with the unfortunate appearance of some canned artichokes atop my perfectly cooked cod. The dudely’s main course, however, was phenomenal, out of this world. I had a hard time keeping my fork on my own side of the table. It was being magnetically drawn into his braised beef cheeks. But, oh, how sad was dessert? Sad! How can a French bistro make crepes that taste like rubber? Oh, Gaslight, thank goodness for your appetizers and beef cheeks. You saved yourself from a flunking grade because I hate losing favorite restaurants.

Onto the main feature: Mary Poppins. I cannot say enough good things about this show. From the acting to the music to the costumes to the sets, everything was amazing. I found myself leaning forward out of my seat, singing along with the music throughout the entire production. I guess that could have been annoying to my neighbors but everyone was doing the same thing! Mary Poppins is such a classic movie and the stage version managed to honor that while adding different bits to the story.

As Mary Poppins would have said, “Practically perfect in every way.” But Mary must have been modest. It was absolutely perfect in every way.

Number 8 on The Experiences List