Review: Mary Poppins Returns: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Mary Poppins Returns: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
composed by Marc Shaiman, performed by Emily Blunt, Lin Manuel Miranda and more

Creating a sequel to a legendary classic musical is always a daunting project, particularly one that comes 54 years after the original. That was the challenge faced by the creators of Mary Poppins Returns, a 2018 film that is a direct sequel to the original Mary Poppins in 1964. Though the P.L. Travers novels that inspired the original Walt Disney film first saw publication as early as 1934, I would venture to presume that most peoples’ memories of Mary Poppins are of the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke film, filled with unforgettable tunes such as “A Spoonful of Sugar”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Feed the Birds”, “Chim Chim Cheree”, “Step in Time” and “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”. That film featured music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, and is, perhaps, one of the most recognizable and memorable movie soundtracks of all time.

For Mary Poppins Returns, the film starred Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack the Lamplighter, Ben Wishaw as Michael Banks and Emily Mortimer and Jane Banks (the two children from the original film), as well as Dick Van Dyke, and many more. The film-makers brought in composer/lyricist Mark Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman. The film is witty, emotionally engaging and visually stimulating, with great performances across the board. But, for me, the key question was — will the soundtrack hold a candle to the quality of the original. In my opinion, the soundtrack to Mary Poppins Returns is excellent, but still not quite up to the “classic” standard set by the music of the Julie Andrews film. There are several marvelous songs, which serve as the anchor for some of the film’s most impressive sequences, including: “Can You Imagine That?”, “The Royal Doulton Music Hall”, “A Cover is Not the Book”, “Turning Turtle”, “Trip a Little Light Fantastic” and “(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky”. But for me, the most memorable song is “The Place Where Lost Things Go”, which was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda are incredible singers and easily hold their own with the music from this film, though I’ll have to admit that Emily Blunt is no Julie Andrews. Miranda is probably the most…energetic…of the performers, and even gets to have shades of his trademark hip-hop influence in a few moments of his centerpiece songs. Many (most) of the songs are multi-voice pieces (i.e. the full cast), and I wish that there had been more than just one song as a solo for Blunt as Mary Poppins. But it is what it is. I’m also quite pleased that the soundtrack includes not just the vocal tracks, but 11 tracks of instrumental score music from the film. And many of those include ghostly little refrains of the music from the original film, expertly woven into the action of the new film.
If you can’t tell, I do, indeed, love this soundtrack, and strongly recommend it. And if you haven’t seen the film in the theater, it will soon be out on DVD/Blu-Ray and streaming services.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Mary Poppins (Soundtrack from the original film).]

[ official Mary Poppins Returns web site ] | [ official Mark Shaiman web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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