Kiddies and the Dark Side

During a recent visit to our family in Atlanta we adventured down town to the historic Fox Theater to attend the Broadway road production of an all time favorite, Mary Poppins. We were primed with the history of the former Yaarab Temple Shrine Mosque--now the Fox Theater complete with fantastic Arabian fantasy colors and architectural features. And pumped up by a recent viewing of the well-loved original movie. Dressed in our go to meetin' duds not even the bumper to bumper traffic could dampen our enthusiasm.

Downtown Atlanta is an adventure in itself, as is ogling all the features of the Fox. There were destination bathrooms, fantasmagorical cut work and painting on the walls, and the illusion of drifting clouds and sparkling stars on the ceiling. Oohing and aahing kept us occupied until the orchestra stuck its opening chord. Wow! What a wonderful and flawless accompaniment to what was going on on the stage.

And that was a lot--a lot of voices and color and dancing and moving sets...all superbly done. Favorites among the production numbers were the vastly entertaining and uniquely choreographed (a la The Village People's YMCA) rendition of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and an innovative and visually delicious version of Step in Time. Then there were the special effects. We all clapped and cheered when Mary slid magically up the banister. Who wouldn't be thrilled when at the end of the musical Mary Poppins lifted off with her umbrella aloft and toes pointed stiffly east and west to float over the audience and rise above the balcony.

The characterizations of our favorites, Mary Popping, Bert, the Banks children, and the Bird Woman, were "spit-spot" on. Even though we had been warned in the program that the musical had been updated and included ideas from the other Mary Popping books (did you know there were more?) we were unprepared for the new Mrs. Banks. Instead of marching shoulder to shoulder with her sister suffragettes, she wrings her hands and bewails the problems of not fitting in. She's supposed to be a former actress who quit the stage to marry "up". Maybe that's why she was condemned to sing the uninteresting song Being Mrs. Banks--twice.

Another new song equally out of sinc with the flavor of the movie was Playing the Game. In the dark uncomfortable dream sequence mistreated toys come to giant-sized life to confront the Banks children. Even if the scene was a nod to other Mary Poppins stories I thought the music too different in style and tone to fit comfortably with the original songs. Frankly it smacked too much of Tevye's Dream from Fiddler on the Roof. Every time the children's beds spun around I expected the butcher's wife, Fruma Sarah, to come swooping in from the wings. During that song I noticed more than one small child scoot closer to their parents.

The opening visuals of the productions were another unpleasant surprise and more suited to film noire than a children's musical. The park in which many scenes take place is surround by gray and black line representations of leafless trees that created a brooding and foreboding atmosphere.

Admittedly there are dark element in most children's stories--look at the murder and mayhem in The Lion King. But come on folks, this is Mary Poppins! We're talking A Spoon Full of Sugar. I so missed the laughing on the ceiling part of the movie. The musical could have used a little leavening.

As much as I loved the bright colorful scenes that were included and the over-all excellence of the performance, I don't think I would pay to see this again. In their effort to up date the musical version it felt as though the producers forgot the purpose of the original movie, light hearted and fun entertainment. If your little ones love Mary Poppins and you have the opportunity to take them to the musical, check out the new numbers online and talk about the changes with your children. Going prepared will undoubtedly increase you enjoyment of the outing and help avoid the disappointment we experienced.

On a related topic, Saturday my husband and I saw Ironman 2, a movie with a well-deserved PG13 rating. It was a fun testosterone romp filled with the usual wham bam shazam comic book action including one huge mechanical battle scene. My husband liked it. I'll like it better seen a second time on my small TV screen with the sound turned way down while I'm doing something else like folding laundry. It's a good kind of movie for that.

What is wasn't a good kind of movie for was the little boy, preschool or first grade age, who sat behind us with, I guessed, his father. The child was clearly upset by the action, saying it was scary and repeatedly asking, "Can we go home, now?" The "father" resorted to the no-it's-not response or demanding, "Why?" At the end of the movie, the boy was curled in his chair and his father, now two seats away, totally engrossed in the final battle scene.

Parents who think movies that are scary enough to make their children want to go home are not going to effect them in some way are kidding themselves. Movies like that are the things night terrors are made of. I know what I'm talking about.

In the 50s I often attending the drive-in double feature movie with my family. At 5 years of age I usually managed to stay awake through most of the family friendly first feature. By the time the more adult fare started I would be tucked away in the blanket padded wide rear window of the old Oldsmobile. Of course my position would always be facing away from the screen in case I woke up. The evening in question, and one I remember in minute detail 55 years after the fact, the main feature was Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. It was supposed to be funny but to an imaginative 5 year old with 1950s sensibilities, the stomp and drag scraping of the mummy's walk to too scary to handle. I retired willingly to my nest in the back window.

I must have fallen asleep because I recall being abruptly awakening by a terrifying scream. The second feature had begun. It was based on the premise of a young rebellious girl being sent to a private reform school run by ghouls who maintained their youth by draining the blood of students in a claw footed bathtub then drinking it. When the girls were discovered to be missing the villains claimed they ran away. It was awful. My eyes were glued to the screen for every minute of it. I didn't dare look out the windows. Who knew what might be lurking in the dark. To this day I remember entire segments of that movie in vivid detail. It haunted my dreams for years.

The dark changes to Mary Poppins caught us unprepared. Luckily the children with us seemed to take it all in stride. I believe completely that my daughter would have walked out of the theater if they had indicated otherwise. On the other hand the father in question had ample warning about Ironman 2. Any movie rated PG13 for violence is not fitting for a small child especially a small child who makes his fears readily known. It's time for all adults to step forward and more carefully vet the entertainment of our little ones.

That brings me to the question that precipitated this entire blog. Knowing how frightened that little boy was, should I have intervened on his behalf? Would you have done so? I'd like to know.