My wife wants to be Mary Poppins.

Well this is a rarity. I love that Saminda keeps a blog for our family as she keeps all of our family and friends in touch with what we are up to, makes new friends world wide, and keeps a wonderful record of our life stored on the internet. But I never hop on here, this is her thing. But once in a while a strange urge comes over me and I want to blog too. Usually Saminda is here to hold me back from the keyboard, restrain me with capsicum spray and lock me in the cellar. But tonight she is in Brisbane preparing for an audition tomorrow and my fingers are typing away on this keyboard completely uncontrolled.

You may have guessed by now that theatre is a very important part of our family identity. It was the first thing that jumped out at us when we started consciously thinking about who we were going to be as a family. Some people say that they like coming to our house because it is peaceful and quiet. And I know what they mean. We are a happy lot and we are polite and get along. But our family isn't really that quiet. In fact I don't think there is a single second of the day where someone is not singing, whistling, tap dancing, playing the piano, beating out a rhythm on a drum or dancing around the house. If we are eating then someone will be humming. Music is huge to us. This morning when I first woke up I said "Good morning honey, which song from Wicked are you singing in your head?". Saminda said "The duet, As Long As You're Mine, and you?". I replied "One Short Day in the Emerald City". We saw Wicked just recently and we haven't had a moment of mental rest from the songs ever since. It consumes us very happily, and our children have completely caught the bug.

So my wife wants to be Mary Poppins. Let's put that in perspective. Mary Poppins is a new show on Broadway produced by Disney. This is not a rehash of a show that has been running since the 50s like South Pacific or My Fair Lady. This is a new musical. And modern musicals are spectacular, epic and very elaborate. Wicked is just such a show and it ran in Melbourne in Australia for 13 months before moving to the next major city of Sydney. It has only been running in Sydney for 3 months but is booked out for at least another 3 months already. So the person who plays Mary Poppins in this new musical is going to be very famous and very busy. 8 shows a week which will be surrounded by television spots, special live performances and additional rehearsals. It is huge.

Saminda and I still know that there are hundreds if not thousands of people trying for this part, and many of them will have more stage experience and especially tap dancing experience. But it doesn't matter. Right now I am so incredibly proud of Saminda for having a go and pushing herself. Musical theatre runs in our blood and I would drop my perfect world that I run in an instant to support Saminda in pursuing her dream career. This has been great for us to realise. Whether she gets the part or not doesn't matter at all. She tried, and that is huge (although I would love for her to meet Cameron Mackintosh, Marina Prior and Phillip Quast if that could at all happen). If she comes home as the new Mary Poppins then I suppose we will be moving to Melbourne 2000 kms away. If she doesn't then I suppose we will have just strengthened our family and added another notch to Saminda's belt of things she has tried.

Good luck tomorrow baby!

Lots of love, Stuart

A photo that is completely unrelated just because I love it and I can put it on without Saminda stopping me!!!!!