Hop on the tube, hop off the tube.  Cross the street, turn a corner.  Run, run, run, run, run.  Hello?  Oh--excuse me!  I'm still in sprint-around-London-as-fast-as-you-can mode.  :-)  Today has been an absolute delight, but it has also worn me out completely.  I woke up at 7:30 this morning, took a shower, roused a reluctant Dylan from his slumbers, and then got ready for the day.  Around 8:30, the two of us headed down to a breakfast of cereal and orange juice.  I also packed some ham sandwiches for lunch, and then we were out the door and on our way to Woodford Station.

We decided to start the day at the Tower of London, and we made it through the entrance gate by about 10:30--just in time to join a huge tour group led by a Yeoman Warder (or "Beefeater").  Luckily, Dylan and I were able to press up close enough to the tour guide to hear all his gory stories and catch each good-natured joke.  If possible, this Beefeater was even funnier and more entertaining than the Beefeater who first led my tour group through the tower several weeks ago.  He was constantly making spontaneous jokes and interacting with the children (he loves children and proudly announced that he has several grandchildren of his own!), and I think Dylan enjoyed the tour.  I know I did!  I picked up so many interesting facts that I had completely missed the first time around.

After the tour, Dylan and I walked through all the towers (13 in total), sauntered along Sir Walter Raleigh's walkway, and went through the medieval rooms (all of which I completely skipped last time, so it was all new for me).  Then we toured the White Tower and saw the Crown Jewels.  It was such fun to have someone there with me to "oo" and "ah" over things.  :-)  Having Dylan there also gave me a chance to show off all my knowledge of the buildings and the history of the tower.  I felt like a history book!  Dylan and I spent a good four hours exploring, one hour of which was wet and drizzly, so we were forced to eat our lunch while huddling under umbrellas.  The rest of the day was absolutely beautiful, though!

At about 2:30, we entered the British Museum.  This time, of course, the exhibits were open.  We started in the Egyptian room and moved through the Greek and Roman rooms, including the Parthenon Exhibit.  Dylan was so excited about everything that he couldn't stop snapping pictures.  He came away from the museum with over a hundred new photos on his SD card!  We explored the mummy displays, the money exhibit, and the room containing the perfectly-preserved 5,500-year-old man.  I don't think Dylan was sure whether to be disgusted or intrigued!  We then walked through the Asian rooms and finally decided that if we didn't eat dinner, we would keel over and die.

So I pulled a reluctant Dylan out of the museum and we boarded a double-decker bus and began scoping out restaurants.  Unfortunately, we couldn't agree on anything that was cheap, and we just kept getting hungrier and hungrier and weaker and weaker.  When we finally spotted a sign for a pizza shop, we dragged ourselves off the bus and into the restaurant.  We ordered a cheese pizza for 4.99 to split, but since it was sit-down dining, the waitress took forever bringing us our food.  Then, when the pizza finally arrived, Dylan and I looked at each other in dismay.  The thing was tiny!  We each got two itty, bitty slices, and that was that.  We were both a little hungry still, so we scouted the streets for some small treat and soon came across a gelato shop.  Dylan convinced me that he would NEVER have another chance to try gelato, so we each purchased a one-scoop cone of butterscotch fudge ice-cream.  They had so many delicious-looking flavors that the choice was difficult to make, but in the end, it was a good one.  That ice-cream really hit the spot!

By this point it was time to begin making our way to Leicester Square for "Mary Poppins."  Along the way, we stopped at Trafalgar Square (St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery) and Chinatown.  Dylan was enthralled by both, and out came the camera again!  After that, we still had time to spare, so we wandered the streets and popped into a few antique bookshops.  Places like that have such a charming air!

At last, we found ourselves in the very crowded box office hall of the Prince Edward Theater.   The place was an absolute madhouse!  The entire lobby was crammed with people scrambling to pick up their tickets.  Luckily, one of the managers was able to organize things, and we actually got through the lines in about five minutes or so.  With ticket in hand, we were able to push our way through the mob and climb the staircase to the upper balcony.  I drew a quick breath as I saw the theater for the first time.  It’s gigantic!  Everything is decorated in deep reds and purples, and all the seats and floors are covered in velvet.  It’s obviously a very new theater; it has a contemporary feel, but it’s still lavishly decorated and everything looks very clean and well-kept.  Dylan and I, of course, were way up on the very last row of the furthest balcony.  The seats were actually quite nice, though; both Dylan and I could see the stage without any trouble, and we could even watch the conductor in the pit from our high perch.  As I saw the rich people seating themselves in the fancy boxes up front, I thought, “Someday I’ll be that posh!”

Children chattered eagerly with their parents before the show, and the whole atmosphere was charged with excitement.  Dylan and I spent 50 pence on opera glasses so that we could see the actors a bit better.  When the seats were all filled (yes—“Mary Poppins” plays to a full house every night) and the orchestra began to tune, a hush fell over the crowd.  The music swelled suddenly, and I felt that unique rush of adrenaline that accompanies a truly great musical or theatrical experience.  And we were off!

I’m sitting here now, humming a lively tune and feeling about as happy as it is humanly possible to feel.  Why?  Because the production really and truly was "practically perfect in every way!"  Since I’d watched the movie version of "Mary Poppins" only weeks before, I found myself comparing everything in the play with the movie at first.  In the beginning, I was not impressed with the musical numbers they’d added (no one can compete with the Sherman brothers!), the children struck me as too bratty (they were holy terrors at first!), and What’s-Her-Face just wasn’t—bless her heart!—a Julie Andrews.  I kept expecting Julie’s soaring tones and hearing instead a showy voice with a rapid vibrato.  In other words, I was a bit disappointed.  It didn’t take long for me to change my mind completely, though!  All I had to do was separate the movie from the stage production entirely, and everything suddenly became magical.

Mary Poppins, the children, and the added numbers began to grow on me as the show wore on, and by the time the production ended, I was a die-hard fan!  And I loved Bert from the very beginning. The role was played by Gavin Creel, the incredible singer who played opposite Sutton Foster in the original Broadway "Thoroughly Modern Millie."  Wow, wow, wow!  And even as I was questioning other character interpretations and comparing everything to the movie, I’d already fallen completely for the incredible special effects.  I felt like I was in Disneyland!

The writers included most of the movie lovers’ favorite moments and lines, but kept the general storyline much closer to the PL Travers books.  And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the route they took works very nicely onstage.  In this new format, they were able to do so many magical things that sent all the children in the audience (and me too!) into raptures.  Park statues came to life and began dancing, nursery toys grew to life size and began singing, and Jane and Michael even traveled to the stars with Mary Poppins!   I had such fun picking out all the little vignettes that came directly from the books but had been left out of the movie.  Sticking to the books also allowed the writing team to introduce some great characters:  Miss Andrews (Mr. Banks’ childhood nanny who he calls "The Holy Terror"), Mrs. Brill (the finicky cook), and a funny woman who sells words, letters, and conversations.

Most of the best-beloved songs from the movie were still in this show, too, although many of them fell in different spots.  I did think that, in some places, the stage production lacked the intimacy that a movie can provide, but it certainly didn’t lack spectacle and magic!   And the writers were very careful not to turn Mrs. Banks into a caricature, but to make the relationship between her and Mr. Banks much more central to the plot.  She wasn’t as funny as the movie Mrs. Banks, but her reconciliation with her husband at the end of the show was very touching.  All in all, there were some lovely moments, and some absolutely thrilling ones, too (Mary Poppins flying over the crowd at the very end, the "Stars" scattering their light into the audience, the absolutely incredible set morphing magically from scene to scene, etc.).  During both "Supercalifragilistic" and "Step in Time" (an incredible tap dance routine, by the way!), the entire audience was clapping and singing along with the characters.  It was great!  And during the curtain call, no one could restrain their enthusiasm.   Everyone whooped and hollered until their voices were gone.  :-)

In all honesty, I think this is probably the best production I’ve ever seen, and Dylan seemed to be just as dazzled.  Now, if only I could get Mama and Devin here to see the production. . .