THIS is the anticipated music theatre event of the year. The ticket prices are stratospheric (upwards of $130, no child discounts) but you get your money's worth - in star power; in stagecraft; in advice on how to turn your dysfunctional family around. That's the spoonful of sugar, helping the bill go down.

If you are taking children, prime them for the long haul. Bring snacks. With interval, Mary Poppins runs for more than 2½ hours. Stage time is split between book (Julian Fellowes), song (Sherman brothers originals from the film and new pieces by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe) and Matthew Bourne's choreography.

Bob Crowley's dollhouse set is packed with detail and surprises. There is a wow factor to many scenes - the transformation of grey London into a Technicolour fantasy, Mary's apotheosis - but Richard Eyre's direction ensures the showstoppers don't do that: stop the show. Poppins unfurls majestically from start to finish.

Verity Hunt-Ballard is a perfect Poppins, not exactly likeable but admirable for her determination to make everyone's life better. Singing and dancing, she's demure precision incarnate. There's fine work too from Philip Quast and Marina Prior, and Matt Lee as Bert, the show's narrator. The show's juvenile leads have a lot to do and are excellent at it, and help the younger audience key into a rather remote world.

Cor blimey and all that, she's not all that easy to fall for is our Mary Poppins, but by the show's standout number, Step in Time, you would have to be stone-hearted not to be swept up in the original supernanny's updraft.

Capitol Theatre, May 5.