Mary Poppins returns to TPAC

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The Tennessee Performing Arts Center production of Mary Poppins opened Thursday night.

More than two years after the Nashville repertory theatre production of Mary Poppins shut down during rehearsals because of the pandemic, the show has returned to TPAC.

The actors of this production were only together for two weeks before the stage went dark.

“Since the very last day of rehearsal of Mary Poppins I have not been back in a rehearsal room or anything for that long,” said Christina McNeal Toole who plays Mary Poppins.

Toole relocated to Nashville with her husband before the pandemic and booked the gig.

“It’s just been something I’ve been holding my breath on for two years,” Toole said.

Exhaling now with other cast members, she’s not the only one returning to Nashville for the show.

“I play like six different characters throughout the night and its just fun from human beings to bringing to life usually inanimate objects,” Deonté L. Warren, an ensemble member of Mary Poppins, said.

Warren was in Aladdin on Broadway when the shutdown happened. Spending the last two years getting a master’s degree, they’re now a voice teacher at Austin Peay, and this is their first show with a Nashville rep.

“To be with this cast, this group of people, I mean the most willing, the brightest, exciting people to be around, which has been really fun and healing in a lot of ways,” Warren said.

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