Mary Poppins to return to the West End in 2019

Disney musical Mary Poppins is set to float back into the West End in 2019, and will follow the closure of another Disney show, Aladdin, at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Tickets for the production, which will star Zizi Strallen and Charlie Stemp, will go on sale in January, and the musical will open in autumn 2019.

Aladdin will play its final performance at the Prince Edward on 31st August 2019.

Mary Poppins will return to the Prince Edward where it premiered in the West End in 2004 produced by Cameron Mackitosh and starring Laura Michelle Kelly, who went on the win the Olivier for best actress in a musical.

With music and lyrics by the Sherman brothers, and additional material from George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the musical is based on the classic 1964 Walt Disney film and the original book by PL Travers. It tells the story of a magical nanny working in London.

Zizi Strallen will reprise the role of Poppins after she played the part on a UK tour of the production in 2015. She has most recently been seen starring in the West End production of Strictly Ballroom, and the National Theatre's production of Follies.

Charlie Stemp, who recently made his Broadway debut in Hello, Dolly! opposite Bernadette Peters, will play chimney sweep Bert. In the West End, he started as Arthur Kipps in Half a Sixpence, and as the title character in last year's Palladium pantomime, Dick Whittington.

Mary Poppins started Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke, and a sequel titled Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, is set to be released in cinemas later this year.

Following the original London production, which ran for more than three years, the musical transferred to Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre, where it won the Tony Award for best musical and ran for more than six years.

Mary Poppins returns to the Prince Edward Theatre in autumn 2019.

Mary Poppins tickets are available now.