LAURA MICHELLE KELLY
A lovely young woman from a distant land has arrived on these shores, and she is busy spreading good cheer to those who cross her path — no, it's not Mary Poppins but the woman playing her, U.K. native Laura Michelle Kelly, who originated the role in the West End production of Mary Poppins to Olivier Award-winning effect. Kelly, who recently joined the Broadway cast of the Disney hit, is a completely enchanting Mary Poppins, and her performance as the world's most famous nanny allowed this theatregoer the chance to enjoy the production at the New Amsterdam Theatre as never before. The singing actress brings such a palpable sense of joy to the role that it is clearly evident why the Banks children are so smitten with her. Kelly, who made her Broadway debut as Hodel in the recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, has also appeared on the London stage in My Fair Lady, Lord of the Rings, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia! and in a particularly starry revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. The artist boasts a voice that is both Julie Andrews-pure at the top and excitingly belty in the middle, and she makes each and every onstage moment count. To borrow a phrase from Mary Poppins, Kelly seems "practically perfect in every way." My recent interview with the actress, who also appeared in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd," follows:

Question: Where were you born and raised?
Laura Michelle Kelly: Isle of Wight. It's really nice to ask questions about that. Not many people do that anymore. I grew up on a farm surrounded by fields. I fell in love with theatre because, down the road, there was a little acting group. There was nothing for us to do, so we started going to acting classes once a week with a lovely lady called Joan. We'd put on little shows for the older people down the road. It was a very quiet country lane, maybe a mile long, with each house separated by a field. It was that kind of environment. It was just a reason to get the community together and entertain people. So that was the beginning. And then there was open auditions for the local theatre group, and my brother got into A Christmas Carol, playing Tiny Tim… my younger brother Nathaniel. Because I saw him doing it and it looked so fun, I really caught the acting bug. I begged them to [let me] be in the next show they did. Literally every show that was put on every season, I was a part of. We'd travel every day after school to the other side of the Isle of Wight to go to the theatre. In the end we moved to the beach to be near the theatre, so it was just walking distance, because I was there all the time. So that's how I got my training really, through experience.

Question: When do you think you knew it would be your career, where it changed from a hobby?
Kelly: It never changed until I got my very first [audition]. I didn't even think about it! It's funny because you do forget that you never used to get paid for [performing]. You did it for love. I did an audition for a job, Beauty and the Beast, in London. It was an open audition. There were about 2,000 people, my first audition ever… apart from school auditions, school plays, which I never seemed to get. They gave me some bit part at the back. [Laughs.] I auditioned for Beauty and the Beast and I got it. I was the understudy to Belle, which was just mind-blowing, because I'd never had a lead part in my life.

Question: What year was that?
Kelly: When I was 17 in 1998. I got on for two whole weeks, and I suddenly realized you can actually get paid for doing something you love.

Question: How did doing Fiddler in New York come about?
Kelly: When I was 17 I did [Beauty and the Beast]. The next job I got was the lead role in something, and then maybe eight years of doing different jobs along the way, being blessed enough to play lead roles in those. I'd worked with a guy called Jonathan Butterell. We did Peter Pan. Funny enough, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who co-wrote some of the songs in Mary Poppins, had written a beautiful version of Peter Pan. They did it at the Royal Festival Hall. I was Wendy, and my brothers played John and Michael.

Question: So your brothers are professional actors as well?
Kelly: They were then. [Laughs.] They played my brothers in it. It was so wonderful. Jonathan Butterell did the choreography for that, and Jonathan was doing the choreography for Fiddler on the Roof. He was doing the additional musical staging with David Leveaux, who was directing. I had gotten really good reviews on My Fair Lady, and so the director had heard of me. Jonathan just threw my name out there as an option. I'm told they had been looking for a long time for a Hodel, someone that would fit in the mix of the people who were already cast. So they flew me over. I had just finished My Fair Lady, playing Eliza. [I didn't know] what I was going to go onto next, but was quite happy about it because I was quite tired. [Laughs.] But they flew me over and within two days they had offered me the job. And then we had to go through the process of hopefully being let over. American Equity were very generous in letting me play it here back then when I wasn't known. It was an incredible experience. I loved doing Fiddler on the Roof. It was just wonderful.

	Laura Michelle Kelly and Lea Michele in Fiddler on the Roof
	photo by Carol Rosegg

Question: It was a beautiful production.
Kelly: It was! They got all the wood shipped from Russia — it was ancient wood. It was very natural… and the real trees they had! And the kind of Chagall-type style to some scenes, with the flying couple, John Cariani and Sally Murphy. It was just so beautifully done. It was lovely to be part of.

Question: Had you been in New York prior to that?
Kelly: Oh yeah, on vacation. After the second I'd been here, it became like a dream. I hadn't really thought about it until I'd visited New York and seen all the shows that were on and that the standard was so high. It inspired me, and then it became a natural hope that one day I might get to play there. So when they offered me Fiddler on the Roof, I didn't even have to think about it. I was like, "Yes, please!" I had been in discussions about Mary Poppins before I left, because I had just done My Fair Lady with Cameron Mackintosh. I wasn't sure whether they were going to offer it to me or not, but I knew it wasn't happening for a while. So while I was here, they offered me Mary Poppins. I remember the day they offered it to me. I was living in a very high apartment overlooking New York. They offered me the role, which meant I had to leave this beautiful place I had fallen in love with, New York, to go back and do this incredible job. I always did hope when I was doing it in London that one day I would do it here. After doing it for two years in London, I just needed a break. I thought I'd missed my chance at doing it here and decided, "Okay, that's never gonna happen." It just wasn't good timing for everybody. And out of the blue I get a phone call saying, "Would you like to do it here?" And I was like, "Yeah! Perfect timing!" [Laughs.]

Question: What went through your mind when they asked you if you wanted to come to New York?
Kelly: Two things, actually. It was a very vivid moment of "I totally want to, but I feel like I should say no," because it's a big, big job and it was exhausting and it was a real challenge. And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, I can't. I'm five years older. My body might not be able to handle it!" [Laughs.] But actually I've really found it easier. I always said, "I'm five years older, maybe my body can't handle it." But I think I'm five years wiser. Because of those two years that I did it, I knew the downfalls and I knew how to prepare for it. I had actually been in training for a whole year to get really fit anyway, because one day I've got a dream to climb Mount Everest. I've still got that dream. I think that maybe this has helped, so I'm on a real health kick. My diet's better, my sleeping pattern is better. I know the sacrifices that I would have to make to survive here doing eight shows a week, and I've generally been a bit more health conscious. It just seems easier, which is strange. [Laughs.]

Question: Is there much difference between the London and New York productions?
Kelly: Yeah, the audience is very different. I think I've been learning a lot from being here, from being surrounded by people that have been in the show a long time. They've been here a long time, they've seen every Mary. Some people have seen every Mary through it. I found that very challenging at first. Obviously, Ashley [Brown] got fantastic reviews and she's a wonderful, wonderful actress and she's the original Broadway Mary.… I was worried that people would compare. And then I realized that we're all in the same family, really. Scarlett [Strallen], who had played it after Ashley, she really helped me make the change. In the end, it's like we're all sharing the same experience, and we're all for each other. That's a really nice way to start your time here. That's how I felt it happen. Like [Disney producer] Tom Schumacher put it, "We're all part of the same family." There's a new girl… Caroline Sheen is going into the U.S. tour. She did it in London. There are very few of us that have played this part, and it's nice to be part of the group of girls that's doing it.  Continued...