A child’s feet in the front row of the audience watching Cwmbran High School’s production of Mary Poppins caught my attention as the cast sang supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
They were swinging back and forth to the music. In the fourth row, a man in his 70s was sat with his walking stick resting down his legs. His stick was popping up and down poking into the aisle to the beat.
A man in the fifth row, either late teens or early 20s, was tapping his left foot. And two rows behind him, a man in his 60s was tapping his two feet along to the tune.
It was a lovely moment that captured the feel-good atmosphere in the school hall throughout yesterday evening.
The cast aged from 11 to 16 took us on a song-filled journey across the smoggy rooftops of London, through the city’s beautiful parks, and around the stunning Victorian home of the Banks family.
Every cast member had lots of stage time with upwards of 20 pupils playing their part in many scenes.
The 34 letters of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious looked fabulous on brightly-coloured lollipops with cast members showing off some quality choreography with the letters being raised in turn.
Funny moment
There was a very funny moment during the interval. I was reading posters on the hall’s noticeboards and something happened involving a couple of cast members and their microphones that were still switched on. I kept reading the posters as I thought: “Oh no, this is awkward. Don’t turn around Ben.” Fair play, brilliant surprise. No spoilers, but make sure you buy a raffle ticket (£1).
A few minutes before the curtain went up, a woman nearly sat in the row in front of me and (joked, I hope) said: “Oh, we won’t sit here, I don’t want to be on Cwmbran Life.”
She moved to the other side of the aisle but we chatted. I asked if she had a child in the cast. She didn’t but had brought her daughter, a year six pupil, to help with the switch from primary to secondary in September by learning more about the school. How lovely.
I said a couple of pupils I met the day before, Lacie Gould (Mary Poppins) and Leo Morton (Bert), told me they loved being part of the cast because there were pupils in every year and they had all made friends with each other. I have a funny feeling this woman’s daughter may be part of the school’s 2026 production 🙂
The audience clapped and cheered as the curtains closed and the cast bowed, grinned and kept in character until the curtains touched and we lost sight of them.
Then I heard the whoops and squeals coming from the stage. We couldn’t see it, but the cast members were congratulating each other on an opening night job well done.
Tickets
The show is on for two more nights – Wednesday 12 March and Thursday 13 March. Tickets £4 are available from this website.