A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR
Meryl Streep Is Going Topsy-Turvy for Mary Poppins Returns
Streep will re-team with Rob Marshall, her Into the Woods director, for the Mary Poppins reboot.
By Julie Miller
Left, by Samir Hussein/WireImage; Right, from Everett Collection.
The first time Meryl Streep collaborated with filmmaker Rob Marshall, for the 2014 movie-musical Into the Woods, she gave the world one of her most whimsical character creations yet—the rapping, spell-casting, Stephen Sondheim-masterminded witch (with a side of glam). And when Streep returns to movie screens for another Rob Marshall musical—the forthcoming Mary Poppins Returns—you better believe she will do so in fabulous capacity.
In the reboot, which stars Emily Blunt as the title character—taking over for Julie Andrews—Streep will play Topsy, Mary's eccentric, enthusiastic cousin who exists in her own world of upside-downs and opposites. The reboot is set in 1930s, Depression-era London, with Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane Banks (Emily Mortimer) all grown up. When Michael loses his wife, Mary reappears (along with a street lamplighter played by Lin-Manuel Miranda) to help the Banks family members through their grief and assist them in rediscovering joy and wonder.
Per Entertainment Weekly, Mary will take the Banks family to visit Topsy's flip-flopped world as part of her optimistic mission. During the visit, Streep will perform an original song written by , Mary will take the Banks family to visit Topsy's flip-flopped world as part of her optimistic mission. During the visit, Streep will perform an original song written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The magazine reports that "Topsy twist[s] the kids' perspective on seeing the world"—presumably finding the unexpected light in life's dark chapters.
In fact, the film's overall optimism is part of the reason Streep was attracted to the reboot, according to Marshall, who spoke to E.W.
The director said that the Oscar-winning (and Oscar-winning and Oscar-winning) actress whom he worked with in Into the Woods was swiftly drawn to his 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns primarily because of its message of optimism—she apparently called it a gift to the world.
For those unfamiliar with the P.L. Travers series, Topsy was introduced in the 1935 book Mary Poppins Comes Back. It sounds as though Streep's Topsy will be an amalgamation of both Arthur and Topsy Turvy, Mary's cousin and the maid he marries. In the books, it is actually Arthur who suffers from a condition that forces him to do the opposite of what he wants on the second Monday of every month.
As for what Streep's Topsy will look like, E.W. reports that "costume designer Sandy Powell is pulling the character's looks from a vintage inspiration board of flapper eccentrics, adorned with turbans and trinkets and all sorts of weird-aunt jewelry."
Mary Poppins Returns will arrive in theaters on Christmas Day 2018. ****
Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury, and Dick Van Dyke—the last of whom co-starred in the original 1964 film—will also appear in the reboot. Julie Andrews, the O.G. Mary Poppins, will reportedly not make a cameo in the new movie—though she did give the project, and Blunt's casting, her blessing.
Photos: Meryl Streep Before She Was a Star
Photograph by Duane Michals; From the DC Moore Gallery, New York.
Meryl Streep in New York City's Theater District, 1978.
Julie Miller is a senior feature writer at Vanity Fair.
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Spoonful of Streep
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