SHE IS supercalifrag-ilisticxpalidocious as she flies through the air with the greatest of ease, but eagle-eyed theatregoers at the Edinburgh Playhouse this week may have noticed that Mary Poppins has changed, quite literally.
On Monday, Lisa O'Hare, a former star of the West End production, stepped in to the sensible, patent leather ankle-boots of the flying nanny as outgoing governess Caroline Sheen waved a final farewell to the Capital.
The moment of truth had arrive
d for the 24-year-old who laughs nervously as she recalls her first magical flight from the Greenside Place stage, out over the stalls and up above the dress circle to the grand circle of the 3000 seat theatre.
"The Edinburgh Playhouse is so large that getting out there is quite a daunting prospect just because of the sheer scale of it," the actress admits.
"The flight is great fun, because unlike the flight that I did when I was playing the part in London – which just went straight up – it goes across and then cuts back on itself and I get really, really close to the audience. It's great having all these faces looking up at you.
"Do you know what? I wasn't really very good with heights until I had to do this show. Now I'm fine dangling however many feet in the air from a couple of wires."
O'Hare admits that finally being on stage has come as a huge relief, having been locked for two weeks of rehearsals at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street.
"I only had two weeks rehearsal so it has been quite intense, but it is such a great thing to be onstage with an audience and not in a rehearsal room with just a few people," she confides.
Since turning her focus to musical theatre after initially training as a ballerina (she even performed at Sadler's Wells) you could say that there have only really been two women in O'Hare's life, Mary Poppins and that other female icon of stage and screen, Eliza Doolittle, the role that first brought her to the Capital in 2005.
It was a part she won having been noticed during a chance in a million perform-ance of - Mary Poppins.
The actress explains, "In the original London production of Mary Poppins I was actually the second understudy, the person who only goes on if both the lead and the first understudy are off.
"It's very rare for the second understudy to go on. However, I did go on, for a two-show day and it was absolutely fantastic.
"It was a last-minute thing and I was standing in the post office when I got a call an hour before the show saying, 'You're on'. So I had this crazy run to the theatre. It was an extremely scary experience but I had the time of my life that day. It was such a blur and luckily, one of the people who had written the music was in and saw me. That's how I got my audition for My Fair Lady. I am so fond of My Fair Lady and Eliza really does have a place in my heart because it was the first part I ever really did.
"Apart from Mary Poppins nothing else comes near it, but they are so different because she is so emotional, a little fireball of energy, whereas Mary Poppins is the exact opposite. She's supernatural and you're always guessing about what she is feeling or thinking. It's been nice to play two totally contracting characters that are equally challenging."
O'Hare has since toured the USA as Eliza Doolittle. However, it was shortly after the show's run in Edinburgh that she finally landed the part it seems she was always destined to play, replacing Scarlett Strallen to become only the third actress to play Mary Poppins in the West End.
Her last London perform-ance was on May 19, 2007 and O'Hare reflects that the show has evolved greatly since those productions.
"This show has been on such an amazing journey and it has been fantastic to be a part of it through all the different stages.
"I came to Edinburgh to see the show before going into rehearsals and I have to say, I sat in the dress circle and actually cried. It was so beautiful and the most stunning version of the show that I have seen.
"The way they have made subtle changes to the show to allow audiences to zone in on the family's stories as opposed to the magic and spectacle. It's beautifully cast and just blew me away.
"The spectacle and fantastic numbers are still there, but I think that because the set is so much more intimate than it was in the West End, and because it moves so beautifully, makes it so much more endearing to watch. It has come a long way."
As has O'Hare, and surely a third engagement means she has the secret of creating a successful Mary Poppins sussed?
"It's important to enjoy the part because she is such a stern character but she needs to have a sense of joy about her. It's such fun to play a supernatural character - when else do you get someone who can pull hat stands, plants and mirrors out of a carpet bag?
"She's a kindred spirit, an angel with human qualities. I like to think that at the end of every journey she makes with a family, she either gets the choice to stay and remain human or to fly away and become a kindred spirit again so that she can help another family.
"Maybe one day she will retire and go and stay with Bert because it's kind of sad when she leaves him at the end."
Mary Poppins, Edinburgh Playhouse, Greenside Place, until December 6, 7.30pm (Wed/Sat matinees 2.30pm), £14.50-£42.50, 0844-847 1660
The full article contains 998 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
