Mary Poppins Production Review

For my play review, I analyzed Berkeley Playhouse’s production of Mary Poppins. For the purposes of the assignment, I chose to focus on two of the main characters, Mary and Bert, played by Taylor Jones and Alex Rodriguez, respectively. This musical was interesting to analyze because of the use of English dialects. Although every actor in the show used a dialect, the English accents varied based on the character and especially the character’s social status. For example, Bert, a chimney sweep, had a Cockney accent, while Mary, whose character is more prim and proper, had a more high-class, RP accent. I used the outline for our vocal recipes to analyze both actor’s vocal use in this particular show. For the character of Mary Poppins, Taylor Jones’s voice was crisp, concise, and quick. The matter-of-fact tone and tempo added to the character’s no-nonsense attitude. However, I thought that with the addition of the accent, her articulation could have been sharper, particularly T’s and D’s at the ends of words. Pronunciation was, of course, affected by the difference in American and British pronunciation, as many words are. One that particularly stood out to me was the pronunciation of the word “advertisement.” While Americans generally stress the third syllable and pronounce the word with a long “I” sound, the actors in this production stressed the second syllable and pronounced it with a short “I” sound, as to stay true to the culture of the characters they were portraying. Jones tended to use higher pitches at the ends of her sentences, with the highest pitch on the last word. Her lowest pitches seemed to lie right in her general speaking register, which was slightly lower than average for a woman. I found her voice to be a bit breathy and wanted more resonance, but I enjoyed her voice’s sweet, smooth, and light quality, and felt it was appropriate for the character. My only other criticism is that I felt some vowels, especially I’s, Y’s, and O’s didn’t completely match the British dialect the character requires, and a lack of length in vowels affected some of the higher soprano notes. Rodriguez’s use of voice for Bert’s character was dynamic and versatile. He used a wide variety of pitches, even playing with them in extra ways, such as sliding between pitches at certain points, particularly on “O” vowels. I thought his Cockney accent was spot on and his vowels very well placed, especially his Y’s, such as when he said “Mary.” You could see how hard his mouth was working articulation-wise and every consonant was easily heard and understood. I learned a lot from observing his use of tempo. He spoke slowly, so the audience could follow every single word, but not so slowly that his lines dragged on too long. When he sang he seemed to be resonating especially from higher places, like his forehead and the top of his head, but he also had some really nice chest resonance when he spoke. As far as word choice, the character used the term “gov’na” multiple times, which, in addition to the accent, added to the character’s lower social status. One thing I really appreciated about this actor was his use of nonverbals. Whether it was small laughs or sighs or even a little “mmm” of agreement, he was constantly responding and reacting to what was happening around him, even if he didn’t have a scripted line. I think it helped him connect to the honesty of the character because he was responding so naturally throughout the entire show. With both actors, I might have liked a bit more volume, even though they were miked and the space wasn’t particularly large. In all, I thought both actors, particularly Rodriguez, used their voices well and appropriately for their characters.