Mary Poppins Scene 1 Summary

Bert Smashes the Fourth Wall

  • London comes into view, with Big Ben towering over it, as the opening credits roll. In the musical overture, shortened versions of songs we'll hear later—like "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Chim Chim Cher-ee"—play.
  • We see Mary Poppins sitting on a cloud, applying makeup with a little pocket mirror. She's putting on her game face.
  • Then, we pull back to the overhead view of London and the camera dives down to a street, where Bert, the cockney chimney sweep, is playing as a one-man band.
  • He goes over to bystanders, and makes up rhymes about them using their names and details about their lives. They seem amused…and not at all creeped out.
  • Suddenly, the wind changes, and Bert sings that it feels like something is about to begin. (*Cough cough* he's talking about the movie *cough*).
  • Bert finishes playing and most of the cheapskates who were listening to him don't give him a tip. (Some of them do).
  • Bert then talks to us, the audience, like we're actually there, and leads us towards the house of the Banks family.
  • But, first, he shows us Admiral Boom's nearby house, where the admiral fires a cannon to announce the time.
  • Admiral Boom tells Bert that heavy weather's brewing.