BWW Interviews: MARY POPPINS' 'Bert,' Gavin Lee

When Mary Poppins flies into London to help out the Banks family, a familiar face is there to greet her with open arms. Her trusted friend and cohort, the chimney sweep and fun-loving Bert, is ready to help Mary share her magic with this family in need. When Mary Poppins, the award winning Broadway production of the timeless classic story, flies into Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre, Bert will be ready to share the magic of this exciting production with local audiences. Playing this role, a role he originated in London and then Broadway, is Gavin Lee, who sat down to share with me his take on his experience with Mary Poppins and the satisfaction of playing such an amazing role.

BWW: Hi, Gavin! How are you?

Gavin Lee: I am good!

Gavin, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today. I am excited to hear about the show and I know our readers will be too. We are really looking forward to Mary Poppins in Atlanta!

Cool! Good, good good!

Let's start by having you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career. Specifically, how did you get into the theatre business??

So, I started very early, when I was about 9, about 1980 or so. My first dance class I ever did was disco dancing. That kind of tells you my age. Within the year, my sister was going to dance class and I was the annoying brother when she got home. I would say, what did you do, show me, show me! And I would try and copy her..

So you were like Mike in A Chorus Line?

Exactly! Eventually, my Mom asked if there were any boys in the class, and there were a few. So, I started dance class and within about a year, me, my sister, and my mom and dad were all in community theatre. I did that growing up and went off to college in London and then started performing in the West End. That was followed by reperatory companies around the country, played some nice understudy roles and a couple of lead roles, but by far the biggest lead role I ever landed was definitely Bert in Mary Poppins, hence, I am still doing it six years later. It is very hard to give up such an amazing role.

And was the Broadway production of Mary Poppins your first experience in the U.S.?

My very first job back in 1990 was actually on a cruise ship going out of Florida, so I had been to America, but only Florida, and I had been to New York for vacation. Obviously, like any actor does coming from England, you take a week's vacation and go to New York and try and cram in 12 shows in one week and I did that maybe three or four times over the years, but definitely coming to Broadway with the show was the first time I had ever worked here. It was everything I ever dreamed it could be. Getting to perform opening night on Broadway and getting to perform at the Tony Awards at Radio City, amazing things happened in that first year. I was very pleased when they asked if I wanted to go and start the first national tour. I didn't want to leave the job, it does become a job, so every time you can change it up slightly, like coming from London to Broadway and then Broadway to the tour, it just gives you a whole new lease of life on the show. So, the national tour is my third reincarnation of the role and my third complete cast change, so it has been fabulous. And now, being on tour, every three or four weeks you are changing cities, it's brilliant. It keeps it so fresh.

And that's pretty rare. Most of the time, new actors take over roles when a show moves from London to Broadway and beyond, but you have been able to stay in your role throughout. That has to be pretty exciting.

You know, it used to happen in the olden days. You used to always get Ethel Merman or Mary Martin, you know the big stars, who would take their show out on tour and that really never happens anymore. So, Disney and CameRon Mackintosh were very pleased for me and Ashley [Brown], who was playing Mary on Broadway to come out and start the tour. And Ashley did a year, she actually just left in February, and I decided to carry on a bit longer because I am loving seeing the country. I am very lucky that my wife is in the show too, so we are both on tour and we're traveling and seeing parts of the country we never thought we would go to. As an English person you go to New York, you go to L.A. maybe, you go to Florida, its what you see of America. So this has been amazing, with the different landscapes and temperatures, it has been absolutely fabulous, it really has. We came from Phoenix, which is the desert, then we went straight to Denver, which is the Rocky Mountains, then to Cincinnatti, and now we are coming to Atlanta. Everything keeps changing, it is just fabulous.

That is so interesting to get to be touring with your wife.  So often actors and actresses on tour tell me one of the hardest parts of touring is that they have to be away from their family for an extended period of time.

Exactly, it is fantastic. One sad thing about being on tour is that nearly everyone has a partner, whether they are married or girlfriend or boyfriend and they are back in New York or Chicago or anywhere they have settled. And they leave the show at night to call them or if they are lucky they Skype them, whereas me and Em we get to come home together and talk about the show and decide what museum we should go to the next day. What site should we go and look at. So, it's no wonder I signed on for a bit longer because it has just been great! I feel like I am the luckiest guy in the world. When I first auditioned for this role back in 2004, who knew that it would last this long and I would still be getting so much from it.

And to become such a big part of your life, six years, and all the experiences you have had..

Yeah, it's a long time. In an actor's life to be with one character this long, that doesn't happen for stage actors very often, it happens for TV actors, obviously, but not that often for the stage.

And have you ever been to Atlanta, or will this be your first visit here?

This will be the first time. I am excited about coming to Georgia. All I really know about Atlanta is it is pretty hot and you had the Olympics a few years ago. So, we will probably have a wander around the arenas and the stadiums to see where the olympics were, because obviously I saw a lot of Atlanta on the TV back in 1996. So, that is all I know about Atlanta and the south. It is an area I have never been to. It is exciting!

Let's talk about your character, Bert. I am curious about the difficulty of playing a character that is so well known and that was so memorably played by Dick Van Dyke? Was that a challenge? How have you made the role your own?

The thing about Mary and Bert, is they are such enormous shoes to fill.  And you are right, it's so many people's favorite movie of all time, or the first movie they ever went to at the cinema, and I deliberately didn't watch the movie when I was auditioning and somehow I had never seen it as a kid. I had seen bits and pieces such as "Step in Time" and "Jolly Holiday", but never the whole thing through. I deliberatley didn't want to just do a carbon copy of Mr. Van Dyke. As soon as I got the role, we bought the DVD and watched it and I said "Oh my God, he is so good, he is so funny, and so physical!" And, I feel very lucky that they didn't just pick up the movie and plop it on the stage. We are not doing the Walt Disney movie. Luckily the creators went back to the original P.L. Travers books, there are six or seven, and they took new characters and storylines from there. They then went to the movie and took all the best songs, bits, and characters and put it all together and made this new Mary Poppins for a new millenium. Bert is even more of a narrator in the stage version, which I really like. In the movie, he looked into the camera a few times and talked to the audience. Well, on the stage, I get to do that an awful lot. I am leading the audience into the next scene or singing about what has just happened. That is really nice for an actor to get to develop and improvise and make their own, when you are originating a role. I am the ony actor who gets to break the fourth wall. And I do feel lucky that I am not just filling the shoes of the movie.

And that has to be nice too, as the narrator, you get to hold it all together and bring the audience even deeper into the story.

Yes, exactly. They make it look like I make the lighting changes and move the sets around a few times. So, it looks like I am moving the story along which is really nice to feel you are, in a way, in control of the show. You kind of feel like the ringmaster. Kind of magical. It's very cool. Mary is obviously the one with all the magic, but whenever she is around, Bert can do amazing things, like walk upside-down. Bert is obviously in love with her, so when she is around it is blissful, and Bert just loves it, and that is a nice trait to play.

Mary Poppins is such a timeless story, so what is it like bringing this story to a new generation of audiences?

The weird thing was we had just opened on Broadway and the whole economy just went kaput, and that's basically our story and it is so reflective of whats happening now. The fact that the show is set in victorian 1910 London, and it's basically about a family and the Dad is losing his job at the bank and they haven't got any money and he can't control his kids and doesn't see his wife often enough, so how apt is this for 2010?

What part of playing this role do you like the most? What do you look forward to the most each night?

As I said, my favorite thing is that I am the one who gets to talk to the audience and break the fourth wall. And, I need an awful lot of energy to do this show. Bert is hyperactive, he is a big kid himself, as soon As Mary Poppins flies in he is ecstatic that she is back. Who knows how long she has been away for and he's like "here she is again to help another family and Bert's going to be her right hand man." Weirdly enough, when people ask this, they expect me to say "Supercalifragilistic" or "Step in Time", where it is high energy dancing and its great fun and audiences really seem to love those numbers. But, my favorite scene is the one preceding "Lets Go Fly A Kite", because it is the one time the kids are upset and its Bert's time to try and calm them down and be sensitive, which you don't see much because he is usually the class clown.  And the final scene, too, when he says goodbye to Mary, it's one of my favorites too, because I am showing the audience a different side of Bert. 

Having been a part of the show in a number of settings, I am curious if there are differences between British and New York audiences or between New York audiences and audiences on tour?

Definitely. I think you find British audiences are very reserved, and although we would always get a standing ovation at the end, they wouldn't go crazy at the end of individual numbers, where Americans, in a good way, like to be loud. We love that because at the end of a number they are whooping and cheering and its great. And, even more on tour, you could be at a completely different end of the country every three weeks. And different cities really react differently. Some are more sophisticated and like the clever jokes and others just like the slapstick stuff, and its not neccessarily what you might think. It even changes from night to night. We find that at the beginning of a venue we get subscribers and at the end you get people who have heard about it or have been reccomended to come and the difference is noticeable.

So thinking toward the future, do you have a dream role that you would one day like to play?

It's hard. You get this kind of role where you have opened it in three different places and get acclaim and award nominations and you wonder where to go next. You don't want to leave the show without a good job to go to. Me and Emily toy with where to go next and we have decided when we are done here we will go back to New York and try our luck there. Something original would be great, it's always nice to originate things. There is actually one part I would love to play if it was ever to come around again. About 15 years ago, they did a musical version of the movie Big, the Tom Hanks movie. I love the music and I think that would be a fantastic role to be able to play a 12 year old. Maybe one day it will come around again.

Gavin, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today. Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers?

The only thing I always like to say, is that so often when these big Broadway shows go on tour, they have to be scaled down and you are just not getting the Broadway show that got all the awards or acclaim. I love the fact that when we started this tour, we got to see the sets and we realized that Disney and CameRon Mackintosh have really pulled out all the stops. The tour really is missing nothing from the original show. Mary still flies out into the audience and I still do this fantastic trick walking upside down across the stage and all the sets, costumes, and characters are still there.  People are seeing a Broadway show, so that is a big thumbs up for me.

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Photo credit: Joan Marcus