An Un-Jolly Holiday with Mary

Maybe the title is a bit unfair. I rushed Mary Poppins this morning, and it turned out to be a really easy rush. I got there at what I thought to be 40 minutes before the box office opened, but it was already open and had no line. The guy actually sold me a ticket right away--no waiting! I hadn't originally planned on seeing Mary Poppins. My mom loves it, saw it last time she was in New York, and insisted I must see it. I told her repeatedly that I had no desire to see it unless the original London cast stars Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins) and Gavin Lee (Bert) were in. As luck would have it, they were together in the show starting in the middle of July. I caved. I love everything Disney and Broadway musicals, so I figured it would be a fun night. Well, it could've been. Don't get me wrong. The show was fun, the cast was energetic, and Laura was perfect as Mary in every way. So, what was wrong? Well, Mary Poppins had the rudest audience that I have ever had the displeasure of being a part of. To my right, a foreign school group of kids who could have cared less that they were at a Broadway show and gabbed away in French the whole show. In front of me, a dad and two kids who got up twice during the fist act to go buy different snacks and then twice again during the second act (how hungry can you possibly be? Why didn't you buy snacks at intermission?). To my left, a guy who pulls out a can of sour cream and onion pringles and muches away on them during the show (I like them too, but they smelled up the whole area!). To top that all off, I was really excited to hear and see the staging of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Right when the number started, I heard this sound that I swear sounded like someone ripping paper. In fact this noise got louder and faster and continued throughout the entire number (it tampered off a little after that but continued at odd moments throughout the rest of act 1). When intermission came around, I got up and tried to locate the sound. A few rows behind me under a seat with a child booster on it was a pile of shredded showbill (for those who don't know, Disney Broadway shows use "showbills" instead of "playbills"). What parent would allow their children to rip apart their showbill continuously and nosily throughout a show? This problem had an easy fix--take the showbill out of the kid's hands!!! Oh, and where were our ushers? This was a problem far more annoying and distracting then any of the people you yelled at for silently taking photos before the show even started. So, I was kind of pissed about my theatre experience. The show was great, but I just couldn't enjoy it.  Afterwards, I still went to the stage door. Little Jane and Michael were cute kids and couldn't seem to believe that people wanted to meet and talk to them. Gavin came out and spoke to us too. Then Laura Michelle Kelly came out, and I just want to say that Laura has to be the nicest, sweetest person I've ever seen at a stage door. She walked down the line and had genuine conversations with every child there. She inquired what they were into (dance, theatre, singing, the like), asked them various questions, offered advice, and seemed to genuinely care what they each had to say. While the experience inside made me initially regret my choice to rush this show (again, not on account of the show), my stage door encounter was the spoon full of sugar that made the horrible audience go down.