Step in Time: Laura Michelle Kelly Will Be Mary Poppins

It has been announced that Laura Michelle Kelly will play the title role in the upcoming West End production of Mary Poppins, a stage adaptation of the Sherman brothers’ classic Disney musical film and the original stories of P.L. Travers.

Kelly is currently appearing on Broadway as Hodel, Tevye’s middle daughter, in the revival of Fiddler on the Roof that’s now in previews and is set to open on February 26. She played Eliza Doolittle in Cameron Mackintosh’s West End production of My Fair Lady and has also been seen in Mamma Mia!, Les Misérables, Whistle Down the Wind, and Beauty and the Beast, but Mary Poppins will be the first show in which she originates a leading role.

Produced by Mackintosh and Thomas Schumacher, Mary Poppins is slated for a December 15, 2004 opening at London’s Prince Edward Theatre after an eight-week tryout run at the Hippodrome in Bristol. The show will be directed by Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne, with Bourne and Stephen Mear providing choreography. Oscar-winning screenwriter Julia Fellowes will write the book, while George Stiles and Anthony Drewe will contribute additional music and lyrics. The production staff also includes Bob Crowley (set and costume design), Howard Harrison (lighting design), William David Brohn (orchestrator), and Nick Davies (conductor).