Backstage with Mary Poppins on Broadway

This Saturday we left the house extra early to head to New York City for a special day with Disney. Our itinerary was full of excitement. The kids behaved beautifully and loved every second of it – from the train ride to doing a virtual reality dance with Daisy Duck in Times Square to seeing the Mary Poppins Braodway musical.

If you haven’t seen Mary Poppins on Broadway, I highly recommend it. This was my 2nd time seeing the show and it has universal appeal for both children and adults. I love this musical and can’t rave enough about it.

Backstage with Mary Poppins on Broadway

Will my child like Mary Poppins? What age is best to take the kids?

Yes! The music is outstanding – especially as you’ll recognize most of the tunes so these updated Broadway renditions sound marvelous to me. Both my 6 year old and 4 year old were captivated by the show. How could they not be with Bert literally dancing on the ceiling and Mary Poppins flying through the entire theater? Incredible!

What age is best to take the kids?

Disney recommends age 6 – and remember, Disney knows kids.

However, Parents also know their own kids best and will definitely know if their children are prepared to see a Broadway musical. Every child has a different attention span and different interests. I took Kenzie last year for her 5th birthday and she was thrilled. This weekend she was 6 when we took her and she was even more thrilled the 2nd time just because she knew how much she was going to love it.

We also opted to buy a ticket for my son Kyle – who is 4 as he has been begging to see this show since Kenzie saw it last year. He loves the Mary Poppins movie and he does incredibly well in the movie theater. We felt that he could do the show but were skeptical about the 8:00 PM start time. So we had both kids nap in our hotel room from 4:15 -5:30. Thank heavens they were agreeable to this as they don’t normally nap anymore – but this nap proved critical to them both being able to stay awake.

Kyle did fabulous and was captivated by the entire show. We did buy him & his Dad the cheapest seats – $67 for the 1st row in the upper balcony – just in case he was too tired and they would need to leave. Mike said the seats were wonderful and he loved it.

Tips for taking kids to see Mary Poppins:

1. Watch the Mary Poppins movie before your take your kids. Anytime we see a movie or show, we introduce the characters and the story to our kids first. This really heightens the enjoyment for the kids. Remember, kids LOVE repetition so the more familiar they are with the Mary Poppins story, the more they will get out of the experience if they know a bit about it before “showtime.”

2. Consider buying the soundtrack ahead of time to pump the kids up for the music.

3. Consider a matinee and/or the 7:00 PM showings for younger children so getting tired at a show that starts at 8:00 and ends at 10:45 won’t be a factor you need to deal with!

Where to Sit?

If you are confident your kids will love the show and are ready for a musical, go for the aisle orchestra seats on either the Left or Right side of the stage. Pick a row up close (say from A-M). There is a great incline in the theater too and kids can sit on a leather booster to give them a boost! It’s comfy and my kids love the boosters!

These Left or Right Orchestra front row style seats are about $118 when I’ve bought them. I sat in row J and G and loved it and felt super close to the stage.

If you are not sure if your kids will stay through the entire show or this is above your budget go for a front row Balcony seat for about $67. Balcony seats at Mary Poppins are FABULOUS! Burt Dances on the ceiling and Mary Poppins will SOAR literally with her umbrella from the stage to the Top LEFT hand side of the theater. As I’m no Broadway stage expert and do not know my stage terms, by left I mean the left hand side of the theater if you were on the stage looking out at the seats. Or think of it as the right hand side of the theater if you were in  seat looking at the stage.

My favorite part of our adventure…..Back stage at Mary Poppins!

Disney is all about the magic and our backstage tour of the Mary Poppins Broadway show in New York City was fabulous. Literally we stood on stage in the New Amsterdam Theater, got up close and personal with the Mary Poppins set, and even had a special “archive” tour of all the Disney Musical props – from the Lion King, to The Little Mermaid to Tarzan to Mary Poppins and more.

Here is Kenzie in Ariel’s Bathtub from the The Little Mermaid. Kenzie could have stayed in this room for 2 hour as she literally was soaking up every single bit of it and wanted to learn about everything & touch and feel it all.

The joy the children had – and the Moms – at seeing these props was amazing and I’m so excited that Disney will soon be sharing this fun with the public. Our tour was essentially a sneak peek of what will soon be a Mary Poppins Backstage Tour option that is rich in history and full of Disney Broadway musical mementos.

Doing a backstage tour before seeing the show was a big bonus as our tour guide gave me a true appreciation for history of the New Amsterdam Theater. The architecture was crazy awesome – especially considering the theater was built in 1903 at a time when there were only 5 miles of Paved roads and 10 registered automobiles in the USA. All materials to build this Theater pretty much arrived by horse!

The kids stood on stage. Looking out at the theater from on stage is beyond cool and a once in a lifetime feeling.

Video of us backstage at Mary Poppins:

Lion King Masks! They let us try them on – they were incredibly lightweight as the actors in the Lion King need to be able to dance with them on.

The inside scoop on the theater was priceless too. From ghost stories to tidbits on the architecture. Kenzie was most impressed and somewhat freaked out by the ghost story shared by our guide too – about a dancer/actress named Olive that is known to appear on stage to male night security guards in her beautiful green dress. She’s a beauty who had an untimely death. This nice ghost is harmless, but I guess it was Kenzie’s first official “ghost story” told to her by someone in authority so she is still talking about Olive!

Here’s Kenzie holding Mary Poppin’s umbrella and wearing her hat. We even held some of the “chimney sweeps” too!

Disclosure: Thanks to Disney Parks for hosting Kyle, Mackenize and I for a backstage tour and Virtual Reality experience in Times Square. Disney also provided Kenzie and I with a ticket to see Mary Poppins.

As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I’ve paid to see this show before with Kenzie and we also bought a ticket for Kyle and Mike to see the show this past weekend so they could join in on the fun. I’m sure we’ll see it again as we’d love to make this a family tradition! This show is well worth every penny. Mr. Banks would approve 🙂