Review – Mary Poppins Returns

Rather unusually for the day – back in 1964 – Phil had two American friends who lived here, had seen Mary Poppins in the States and used to wang on and on about it endlessly. They were incredulous when Phil asked them. “But what’s Mary Poppins ?”

These were the days when films would take months to cross the Atlantic and years to reach Phil’s local cinema, the Westbury Vista which came with an asbestos roof, an Orientally designed interior and a climb of just three steps up to what would now be called Premium Seating but they liked to call The Balcony.

Phil recalls the excitement when he eventually saw the Disney film with his family in, what was to him, a very large cinema in Bournemouth.

If for some peculiar reason you’ve never seen the original, you really should. It will certainly work both for and against your Mary Poppins Returns experience.

Review – The Hamilton Experience, Victoria Palace

So what’s Hamilton about?

It’s about finger-wagging bossiness and treating audiences as a slight inconvenience. The theatrical equivalent of restaurants which are happy to profit from big group bookings but can’t cope unless you choose from the menu in advance.

It’s about telling their audience to get to the theatre an hour before the performance and telling them not to try and enter the theatre until their full party has arrived. WTF? We hadn’t been this irritated since we heard our last “See it. Say it. Sorted” tube announcement (let’s not even start on those voiced by children).

It’s about telling us to bring “photographic ID” (according to Ticketmaster’s missives) or “government issued photo ID” (according to the Hamilton website) – so which is it to be? Phil, who confused the government with TFL was only allowed to enter by one of the Victoria Palace wardens as he “looked honest” (note to ticket touts, model yourselves on Phil). Andrew was taking no chances; fearing he might be mistaken for a tout and not allowed to finger the ticket he forked out for a year ago (despite Phil having dealt with the traumas of booking) he promised to turn up with his passport, a utility bill and a letter signed by two Justices of the Peace.