Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Special #3 - Mary Poppins

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 8 13 Mary Poppins: By the numbers A heaping spoonful of fun facts about this legendary film ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS A record for any Walt Disney Studios film at the time, with five wins, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews, Best Original Song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” and Best Original Score. ICONIC DEBUT Mary Poppins marked Julie Andrews’ feature film debut — and earned her both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Walt Disney discovered her while she was in Camelot on Broadway. YEARS That’s how long Walt Disney pursued the rights to adapt Mary Poppins , after promising his daughter Diane he would turn her favorite book into a film. SONGS Almost three dozen songs were composed during development. The original 1964 album includes 17 tracks — sixteen songs and an overture. OCCUPATIONS The character Bert (played, of course, by Dick Van Dyke) possesses many talents: one-man band, chalk artist, chimney sweep, and kite salesman. MUSICIANS Along with one music librarian and six hours of rehearsal, that’s how many Lyric Opera Orchestra musicians it takes to bring the Sherman Brothers’ complete score to life, performed live in sync with the film. MILLION The film earned $44 million in U.S. theatrical rentals during its original run and eventually became the highest-grossing film of 1964. MILLION: THE ORIGINAL BUDGET The film produced major advances in visual effects, including seamless combinations of live action and animation, extensive matte paintings, and complex compositing that brought “London” to life on a Burbank soundstage. 34 LETTERS In Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, a nonsense word that somehow says exactly what it needs to. 13 1 30+ 66 $44 34 4 20 $6