"...With its magic and chutzpah, it simply blows away the opposition from rival West End musicals, emerging as the year's most joyous, spectacular and heart-tugging show in that genre. Don't turn up expecting a dutiful transfer from screen to stage. True, many of the much-loved Sherman Brothers' songs are here, but there's no merry-go-round horse race, no dancing penguins, no tea-party on the ceiling. Instead, the show, directed with huge flair, by Richard Eyre, has been reworked to incorporate more of the original P L Travers stories and it often finds exhilarating new contexts for the old numbers... There's a batch of strong new songs by the English team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe and a wonderfully fresh take on the book by Julian Fellowes..." The Independent

"...The magic nanny, with a flair for flying by solo umbrella and gorgeously played by Laura Michaelle Kelley, in a style of elegant, icy hauteur, has touched down in the West End. What a high-class, reconstituted vehicle has brought her here... such a sharp, thoughtful stage musical. The show's appeal is not just to juveniles, who will be captivated by Miss Kelly's pert way with magic and that Spoonful of Sugar, but to adults at whom the stringent, talking stuff is aimed... In Richard Eyre's magnificiently organised production, Disney's cute winsomeness has been drained away. A rueful, bracing satire that makes critical fun of uptight Anglo-Saxon attitudes, now emerges..." The London Evening Standard

"...The stage version of Mary Poppins is heaps better than the movie - funnier, sharper, more inventive and with a far greater variety of mood. There are a host of terrific new songs to join the beloved originals by the Sherman Brothers, written with great melodic panache and lyrical invention by the long promising George Stiles and Anthony Drewe... The film sometimes seemed saccharine. Here the emotion is strong, true, and heart-catching... Richard Eyre directs one of the greatest productions of his career, offering an evening constantly filled with enchantment and delight... The choreography by Stephen Mear and Matthew Bourne is sensational... Bob Crowley's designs are equally special, solid, detailed, and ingenious..." The Daily Telegraph

"...The show contains plenty of the Sherman brothers' wonderful songs... but there are also new songs, of equal quality, from newcomers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The miracle of their work is that it, too, feels like an old friend, while injecting much-welcome modernity. One of their songs, Practically Perfect, is an instant classic... This production is certainly no mere kids' night out. It makes you cry, and there are moments that will give fainthearts cause to shield their eyes. But children from eight to 80 will feel boosted, liberated, whimper and hide their eyes. With her brolly and her brio, this bird has plenty of bone in it. She flies." The Daily Mail

"It is unlikely many people noticed Cameron Mackintosh sneaking into the dress circle to watch the final moments of this long-awaited stage adaptation of Mary Poppins. When a show is as captivating as this one, it is nice to put the world outside on hold for a while.

With the blessing of the author’s estate plus a close collaboration with Disney, Mackintosh’s 20 or so years of trying to bring everyone’s favourite fictional nanny to the stage has finally paid off. This high-flying, joyful production is capable of entertaining dedicated fans of the original books and 1964 movie as well as winning over a whole new generation of youngsters, some maybe being introduced to Mary Poppins for the very first time..." The Stage