Mary Poppins (character) Mary Poppins (character) Mary Poppins is a fictional character and the eponymous protagonist of P. L. Travers's "Mary Poppins" books and all of their adaptations. A magical English nanny, she blows in on the East Wind and arrives at the Banks home at Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London, where she is given charge of the Banks children and teaches them valuable lessons with a magical touch. Travers gives Poppins the accent and vocabulary of a real London nanny: cockney base notes overlaid with a strangled gentility. Julie Andrews, who played the character in the 1964 film adaptation, won the
Mary Poppins (musical) played by Gavin Lee. Notable replacements have included Scarlett Strallen, Lisa O'Hare and Caroline Sheen as Mary Poppins and Gavin Creel as Bert (in July 2006). The show sparked mild controversy not long after its debut when producers Cameron Mackintosh and Thomas Schumacher banned children below 3 years old from entering the theatre, deeming the show too scary for young children. The ban remained throughout the show's entire run, during which the theatre staff were to prevent patrons with children below 3 to enter. The show was officially tagged as being "for children seven years and up". On March 17,