I'd never intended to watch the show at all. The story goes that a friend of mine, on holiday in London, wanted to experience West End theatre. She chose the show and I tagged along, not thinking much of it. Suffice to say that I ended up watching the show three times with the original cast.

ITEM ONE. The Dancing Penguins Have Been Fired.

It was an advantage for me in that for all three of my viewings, I was with someone who couldn't remember the movie. A clean slate usually fares better than one with expectations, and I can say with absolute certainty that movie purists will find the stage version disorienting. The core of the story remains the same: Mary Poppins appears out of nowhere and takes charge of the Banks children, effectively turning their household upside down. However, gone are the suffragette Mrs Banks, the horse carousel, the tea party on the ceiling and many others points that had been clearly established in the film.

I myself love the fact that the stage musical totally veers away from the movie. The Disney movie is a winning formula... Just look at how well it's stood the test of time. By taking a risk and travelling into unchartered waters, they were challenging the audience to accept a story built on different sensibilities than most are familiar with.

It's difficult to say whether the changes are unequivocally good or not. I for one enjoyed them. I love that the show is so sharp and undeniably British, and that the characters are distant doppelgangers (at best) from their silver screen counterparts. But I know that I don't speak for everyone. For those whose mental images of Mary Poppins remain unchanged after her initial big-screen entrance, the translation may be more difficult to swallow (I shall refrain from making a joke about spoonfulls of sugar, thank your lucky stars).

ITEM TWO. Carpet Bag, or Interdimensional Portal?

There's been a lot of noise about Mary Poppins being a special effects wonder. Which it is. The sets, stage tricks and wire-stunts are on the dazzling side of awesome. All praises sung are much deserved, but that's not the only thing the show is about.

I'm not a big fan of special effects. Oh, I do enjoy a little clever stage trickery now and then, but when things get to the level of George Lucas on a summer mayhem budget, I get more annoyed than awed. That said, in Mary Poppins there is a sense that the story comes first, the performances second, and the special effects third. The special effects accompany rather than distract, which is a much welcome relief.

ITEM THREE. Dramatis Personae.

Laura Michelle Kelly as Mary Poppins. Only a woman with the right combination of sparkle and charm can pull off a song about her being "Practically Perfect". Laura's subtle reinvention of Mary reminds me of Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. (Besides that Mary appears younger, prettier and has better fashion sense.) There's something vaguely untouchable about her, and she has a smile that says that she knows more about the universe than you'll ever know, and aren't you the lucky one for having the pleasure of being in her presence? The magic dust that makes Laura's Mary so believable is something that I can't define. It's just there.

Gavin Lee as Bert. Well, where to start? The man oozes carefree charm. As Bert, it feels like Gavin is constantly there on stage, even when he's not, observing the goings-on at the Banks household and switching effortlessly between jobs. I feel exhausted just watching him dance and sing with the boundless energy that is required of the character. His brand of sparkle matches Laura's evenly, making their scenes together a joy.

(It's a telling thing that I don't remember Dick Van Dyke's allegedly horrible cockney accent. It's strange, because the movie remains fresh and clear in my head, but I don't recall the accent. Did I, in my childhood trauma, block it out? Who knows.)

David Haig and Linzi Hateley as George and Winifred Banks are the more understated characters of the show, but their evolution is the core of the story itself. Considering that we barely see the two of them in the movie, and even less so in the books, what they've done with their stage versions was to make them more human. There's a helplessness in their relationship that turns into tenderness by the finale. How can you not go awww? (Linzi Hateley is also alarmingly pretty, but that's another matter altogether.)

Jane and Michael Banks are brats. Brilliant. This adds on to the family's growth closer to one another. Since I've had three visits to the Prince Edward Theatre, I've seen three sets of children play Jane and Michael, who are (I hope I got this right): Poppy Lee Friar and Jonny Weldon, Lydia Bannister and Oscar Redif, as well as Nicola Bowman and Ross McCormack. All of them were wonderful, with frighteningly accurate comedic and emotional timing.

Other characters add on to the canvas richness. Mrs. Corry the ageless shopkeeper, Neleus the statue, Mrs. Brill the chef (Jenny Galloway with, as always, spot-on comedic timing), Robertson Ay the nervous Banks manservant, the Bird Woman (heartbreakingly gentle Julia Sutton), the park keepers, and so on and so forth.

As luck would have it, I saw Louisa Shaw in three different roles during my outings: once as Mrs Corry, once as Katie Nana (which is her official role) and once as the Bird Woman, and this tickled me pink. It was interesting to see how she made her version of the Bird Woman slightly out-of-touch with the real world.

ITEM FOUR. Musicality.

In bringing Mary Poppins to the stage they pulled out a few songs, inserted some replacements and revamped all the remainders. The new songs do mesh incredibly well with the established classics, but I don't think that any of them have the same level of charm. That said, they do work well in context of the stage show.

Practically Perfect is Mary Poppins' new introduction song and apparently a fan-favourite. It's that extra zing in Laura Michelle Kelly's performance that makes such a cheeky song work, and that final note she hits is whoa (and sadly is not captured in its full glory on the cast recording). The Banks couple get their own soliloquoys in Good For Nothing and Being Mrs Banks, bring out whole new dimensions to the characters. Precision and Order replaces Fidelity Fiduciary Bank with the same eerie coldness of the bank. A scary sequence is Temper Temper, where the toys come to life and chastise the Banks children for losing their temper, and casts me down an Enid Blyton-type path of nostalgia.

Though, my personal favourite of all the new songs is Brimstone and Treacle (parts 1 and 2), highlighting the appearance of Ms Andrew into the cast. Rosemary Ashe as Ms Andrew is a different sort of show-stopper, sinister and unforgettable. Maybe I'm just being contrary, but while others sing praises of Step in Time, it's the confrontation between Mary Poppins and Ms Andrew in Brimstone and Treacle part 2 that puts the biggest grin on my face. It says a lot about how charmed over I am by Mary that I want her to kick some holy terror behind. Additionally, the finale always gives me goosebumps.

There are a few revamps worth mentioning. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has been stretched out, allowing a slower build-up into a wonderful show-stopper. Step in Time has become a full-fledged song instead of a repetition of six bars and is accompanied by some mesmerizing footwork. A Spoonful of Sugar has its place in the plot changed, but retains its purpose.

One gripe (and I do only have one real one) is what was done with Let's Go Fly a Kite. It was the finale of the movie and held significance in that it represented the Mr Banks' transformation and the final togetherness of the family. It was a tender family song. However in the stage version they've turned it into a filler song that isn't really that important plot-wise, and that kind of makes me sad. The new finale is Anything Can Happen, a platitude song that doesn't quite charm the way that Let's Go Fly a Kite does. Oh well, you can't have it all.

ITEM FIVE. The Thing With Mary and Bert, or Subtext is for Pansies.

From the moment that Laura's Mary and Gavin's Bert step on stage together, there it is: a palpable Thing that finds purchase in the way they talk, dance and even look at each other. This threw me off-guard more than any song revamp or plot insertion because it was carried out with such a casual attitude, as though it's been there all this while.

In the movie, I always thought that Bert had a bit of a crush on Mary, but that was about it. The stage version takes that suggestion and goes wild. Of course, Mary Poppins of the books would sooner whack Bert on the head with her umbrella than consider any sort of romantic relationship, so what they've done with the knowing looks and secret smiles is very much the stage's invention. Rather like Les Miserables' amplification of the Cosette-Marius-Eponine love triangle (which was a blink-and-miss-it affair in the novel), the weaving of such a relationship may not be particularly accurate but oh isn't the adaptation all the more richer for it? It humanises the otherwise otherworldly Mary Poppins, hinting that perhaps she's not as invulnerable as she says she is.

DEFINITELY:

The West End stage musical is not the movie, and that is something that would take a lot of people by surprise. But really, it's this uniqueness and adventurousness that made me fall in love with it.