Robert Hendrickson, Smithsonian, July 1990 It was a big beautiful bubble, … a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious bubble. He crammed a generous chunk of the mix in his mouth and blew a bubble. That cheer has inspired people to use it, like Helen Herman used her word, for things that are extraordinarily good or wonderful. The word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in Mary Poppins is said to be simply a word used as "something to say when you have nothing to say," but the mouthful of nonsensical syllables certainly has brought cheer to audiences for decades. once you arrive at the end, you have said in one word what it would ordinarily take four paragraphs to explain." The columnist muses about her made-up word, describing it as including "all words in the category of something wonderful" and "though rather long and tiring before one reaches its conclusion. In fact, the earliest known written record of a variant is for supercaliflawjalisticexpialidoshus from an "A-muse-ings" column by Helen Herman in The Syracuse Daily Orange (Syracuse University), March 10, 1931. In the end, the court decided in the Shermans’ favor because, among other things, affidavits were produced that claimed that variants of the word were known many years prior to 1949, making the plaintiffs' claim unfounded. We had "precocious" and "atrocious" and we wanted something super colossal and that's corny, so we took "super" and did double-talk to get "califragilistic" which means nothing, it just came out that way.Ĭoincidentally, there was also a song called Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus that was written in 1949, and the authors of the song brought a suit against the Sherman brothers for copyright infringement. We started with "atrocious" and then you can sound smart and be precocious. "Obnoxious" is an ugly word so we said "atrocious," that's very British. Remember when we used to make up the big double-talk words, we could make a big obnoxious word up for the kids and that's where it started. This weekend, Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains open a two-weekend run of Disney's "Mary Poppins," a clever update to the P.L.A future spelling bee champ offers to spell 'Supercalifragilistic' for Mary Travers-based 1964 film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Between Stepinac's opening and closing weekends, Westchester Broadway Theatre opens its production of the same musical, in a dinner theater setting with professional actors, include a Poppins who has played the practically perfect nanny before. Here's my chat with Lauren Blackman, WBT's Poppins. I'll have more with Stepinac's Poppins, Christine Turturro, in a separate post.įlying by umbrella isn’t new to Lauren Blackman. Blackman, a California native, is no stranger to WBT audiences, having played the wicked Vivienne in “Legally Blonde” and the frustrated Claudia in “Nine.” The star of Westchester Broadway Theatre’s new production, “Mary Poppins,” (running May 8 to July 27) played the practically perfect nanny in Maine last summer, in the musical’s East Coast regional premiere. The 1964 musical - with music and lyrics by Richard and Robert Sherman - was reimagined for Broadway in 2006 with music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe and a book by Julian Fellowes, of “Downton Abbey” fame. It’s this new version that comes to the Elmsford dinner theater, under the direction and choreography of Richard Stafford. “Props and I will work together, but I think that’s every Mary Poppins’ wish: that you’re a little bit smoother with the magic.’” “I wish I knew a better way of handling the magic,” she giggles. There’s plenty of magic in the show, from a seemingly bottomless carpetbag to her umbrella flight. The challenge at WBT is that the stage is nearly surrounded by audience. “But I know they have lots of special things in store for Westchester.” “There’s really no way to trick you when you’ve got audience on all sides,” the actress says. She’s not a villain, but she certainly has a strict side to her, which (author) P.L. Travers wanted to come out more in the movie. I always try not to be funny and try not to be stern and try not to be strict, but the book is great. If I just keep my mind on the goal, I think it comes across the way it’s supposed to.” Mary is just a person who loves and she has a goal. Standing in first position with the umbrella up certainly makes a difference, the actress says. She’s on a first-few-syllables relationship with the show’s iconic number, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” which she calls “Supercal.” In this version, Mary, Bert and the Banks children spell it out, accompanied by intricate choreography that gets faster and faster.
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