Coal City High School presents Mary Poppins this Friday – Shaw Local

The Coal City High School Theatre Department opens its performances of “Mary Poppins” on Friday, stepping into a Disney classic full of songs and scenes many grew up with.

The show kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday, with showings at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, as well as 7 p.m. Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 17.

Stephen Byers, who plays the role of Bert, said it’s great to put on a show meant for a younger audience, and his family is super excited to hear “Step in Time” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” It’s a show that allows the performers to play to a wider audience.

Elsa Bunton, who plays Winifred Banks, agrees.

“My grandparents will be singing along,” Bunton said. “They love ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ and musicals in general. My grandma would call me whenever it’s on whatever channel to let me know ‘Mary Poppins’ is playing.”

Jared Counterman, who plays George Banks, said it has a little bit of everything for everyone. There’s a lot of kids performing in the show and the characters show a lot of growth, and he’s excited for the wide variety of things they all get to do on stage.

To him, and to Director Jack Micetich, it’s important to capture the Disney magic with it.

“Anytime we do a Disney show, especially a show Disney developed for Broadway, there’s so much they can do and so much magic behind it,” Micetic said. “That really has to carry over. The biggest question we’ve heard since we started this process is ‘is Mary gonna fly?’”

Micetich said there’s a responsibility when performing a show such as “Mary Poppins” to have the magical moments and the special effects. He said it makes for a much different rehearsal process because all of these things have to be in sync, shored up and clean.

Byers said with “Mary Poppins,” there isn’t as much leeway because many people in the audience already have seen the movie, and it’s hard to veer off the acting and choreography choices made in the movie.

Counterman pointed out that with a show such as “Alice by Heart,” which was brand new to most of the audience, the actors were able to interpret their roles and make it work through their own lens.

“When Disney translates their shows from the movie to Broadway, they give you enough that they aren’t just hitting the kid audience,” Micetich said. “A majority of the Broadway audience is adults, so they make sure they hit those different crowds. While this production has the kinds and bells and whistles that are going to leave the kids going ‘wait, did that just happen?’ I think there’s a lot of heart behind it that will bring back nostalgia for the adults.”

Micetich said the family has a much larger story arc in the play than they get in the movie, and there’s around an extra hour of storytelling.

Tickets are available at bit.ly/CCTDTickets, remaining seats will be sold at the door starting one hour before each performance. Students and senior citizens cost $7, and adults cost $10. Sales at the door are cash only.