If you’re going to take on an iconic role like Mary Poppins, it doesn’t pay to be timid. You might as well go for it. Emily Blunt does just that in Mary Poppins Returns, taking the Julie Andrews template, honoring it to a T, and adding her own lively spark. This time around a second generation of Banks children (the kids of Michael Banks) find themselves in need of guidance and a bit of magic. Blunt’s Mary Poppins seems less interested in her charges than in getting to play the part of a dreamy diva, never more so than in a fantasy sequence where she feigns reticence before taking over a cartoon music hall (one of the many charming odes to the original film’s mixture of animation and live action). Lin-Manuel Miranda appears as a lamplighter who remembers Mary Poppins from his own childhood, and I have to say his reedy vocal range is a better fit for the silly cockney ditties here than the powerhouse songs of his own Hamilton. Still, the loveliest number might be “A Conversation,” performed by Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks, who is mourning the recent death of his wife. With music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, it’s at once a song and a sad whisper. The bigger production numbers pulsate with a pleasing combination of creativity and chaos, thanks largely to Blunt’s presence as the perfectly coutered calm in the middle of the storm (Sandy Powell’s costume design makes supporting players out of bow ties and ribboned pumps). If only someone had told director Rob Marshall that—especially in musicals—a lot is happening below the waist, so he might want to ease up on the boring medium shots. (An otherwise thrilling number involving a company of lamplighters is nearly ruined by the inelegant framing.)
