Zizi Strallen has spoken about the pressure of following in Dame Julie Andrews’s footsteps as Mary Poppins, saying the iconic performance will always be somewhere in her mind. The musical returned to the West End last night with Strallen, 29, playing the magical nanny.
The star, who appears alongside Jennifer Hudson, James Corden and Dame Judi Dench in next month’s big-screen remake of musical Cats, said she grew up watching Dame Julie in the 1964 Disney classic.
She said: “She’s always going to be somewhere in my mind. I know that for people watching she’s going to be somewhere in their mind as well. Every night I think, ‘Oh God, I hope they like my Mary Poppins’. At the same time it’s a gift of a role to be magic, to make people happy, to teach lessons in a fun way, and sing these beautiful songs every night. You you have to take the pressure with the beauty of it.”
Cockney Bert, immortalised by Dick Van Dyke in the five-time Oscar-winning original, is played by Charlie Stemp, 25, who said: “I just have to be loud and big and silly and I love it. Whether you’re 50 or 100, you come to Mary Poppins and you are immediately that five-year-old kid again.”
The show first opened in London 15 years ago and producer Cameron Mackintosh said the “timeless story” has returned at a perfect time.
He told the Evening Standard: “It’s about what really matters in life. People matter more than making money. It’s a pretty basic concept that the world is grappling with at the moment.”
Downton Abbey creator Lord Fellowes wrote the script and said its message can be reassuring during “confusing times”. “Sometimes in your life you’re given the strength to fight back and get your life back in shape. That’s what this show is really about,” he said.
Of Mary Poppins’s relevance to the modern day, Strallen added: “If only Mary Poppins was around, Brexit would be fine, you know. She’d just tell them all what to do and spit-spot, it’ll be fine.”
