Musical Promises to be a Spoonful of Sugar
As opening night for the spring musical approaches, the cast is hard at work.
The cast of Mary Poppins prepares for opening night.
City High Theater’s spring musical, Mary Poppins, is right around the corner. Audiences at the musical, which will be showing April 24-26, in Opstad Auditorium, can expect to see many new faces on stage, tap dancing, and characters flying.
“There is surprisingly way less seniors this year,” Addie Bass ‘17, who plays Mary Poppins, said. “A lot of these people are from show choir and I think it has been a little strange for them. It’s not like on beat three you do a blade. It’s on these words you kick your feet in the air. You have to make a face that shows emotion, not just ‘hey look at me, I’m on stage.’”
Kyle Irish-Gorvin 17’, who plays Bert, is new to musicals, but acted in City High’s fall play, The Diviners.
“The Diviners was dark and the main character dies in the end, but Mary Poppins is meant to be a more light-hearted musical,” Irish-Gorvin said. “It has some darker themes, but overall it is meant to be happy. I think the audience will really enjoy it.”
To prepare for the show, the cast has been practicing hard in the afternoons since mid-February.
“I really enjoy the working environment of Mary Poppins,” Irish-Gorvin said. “I feel like we all have really good chemistry and the actors all really bond well, which is a pretty fun thing to be around.”
Flying, which has previously been used in the City High Theater’s production of Peter Pan, is featured in Mary Poppins.
“There was a flying apparatus in Peter Pan, and people loved to see the characters flying in the air and spinning around,” Bass said. “The rope that keeps hanging and just spinning around, that freaks me out. This time it is much safer than in Peter Pan though.”
The characters who will be flying are Mary Poppins and Irish-Gorvin’s character, Bert.
“The way I understand the flying is that City High is paying this company who does all these mechanics,” Irish Gorvin said. “They attach a harness to us at some point and then we are lifted from the stage by some sort of mechanism.”
Another new thing this year is that the directors double-cast the roles of Mary Poppins and Bert.
“We have plenty of talent at City High to be able to double-cast, but we also wanted the assurance that if someone gets sick or can’t perform we have someone who is ready and has practiced, especially with the flying,” Mr. Peters, the director, said. “There is a lot riding on this show with the flying.”
Along with Bass and Irish-Gorvin, Eddy Galstad 16’ and Will Barker 15’, also play Mary Poppins and Bert respectively.
“Ever since I was a little girl I have loved Mary Poppins, and when they announced they were switching from Grease to Mary Poppins I was excited,” Galstad said. “I saw the opportunity here and tried out. And when I got the role, I was sort of awestruck. I was playing one of the Mary Poppins and in my mind, I’m like, ‘I’m playing a character I’ve idolized for years.’”
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