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The stage door opens and iconic figures spill into the Soho street: a plump, old-fashioned bobby, who proceeds to direct traffic; a chorus line of chimney sweeps; and finally, a maroon-coated nanny who shivers on the sidewalk and seems in need of a little magic. The cause of all this commotion is a fire alert at the Prince Edward Theatre, which has interrupted rehearsals for the most eagerly awaited musical of this West End season — Mary Poppins.

The nanny isn't quite ready to fly. During TIME's backstage visit a week before the Dec. 15 opening, co-producer Cameron Mackintosh is helping to wallpaper the theater, which is being refurbished. Richard Eyre, former head of Britain's National Theatre, mutters into a headset, while co-director and choreographer Matthew Bourne adjusts an elbow here, a twirl there. Technicians are honing the effects. "It looks very high tech," says co-producer Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Productions, "but this show doesn't employ any techniques that haven't been in use for decades." Perhaps, but with flying stunts and a house that appears and disappears, the show is dressed to impress.

And no wonder, given this team's track record. Mackintosh landed a helicopter on stage in the musical Miss Saigon, crashed a chandelier on the audience in The Phantom of the Opera, and re-created Paris barricades in Les Misérables. Schumacher turned the stalls into a jungle in The Lion King, and Bourne made audiences swoon over a flock of male swans in his interpretation of Swan Lake. The team hopes not only to repeat these successes but to surpass them. Mackintosh admits to having "put more money into this show than any other" (the producers won't divulge figures, but the budget is rumored to be over $14 million). Advance bookings are thought to have outstripped this already by over $5 million. Will Mary be the blockbuster the West End so badly needs?

The producers have taken one big gamble — going for a darker vision of Poppins that diminishes the show's family-friendly appeal. (It's a long show, at 2 hr. 50 min.; toddlers are banned, and parents of children under 7 are advised not to bring them.) For those to whom Mary Poppins means Julie Andrews' warm smile — almost everyone, in other words — that could be a problem. But Mackintosh, Schumacher and scriptwriter Julian Fellowes (best known for the films Gosford Park and Vanity Fair) all wanted to incorporate elements of the Mary from Pamela Travers' 1930s books — and she can be, well, a bit of a bitch. This Mary takes the children on adventures, then denies they ever happened — "her face was dark and terrible … her very apron crackling with anger," writes Travers. Says Fellowes: "That contrast between the tough, cross nanny whom the adults can accept and the magical woman who takes the children on these journeys is the wit of the character."

Getting the show together in the first place was a coup de theatre. Mackintosh had secured the rights to stage the books, but Disney owned the Sherman Brothers songs from its film version. Neither party would entertain the idea of collaboration until Schumacher arranged a secret meeting with Mackintosh, and the pair discovered they shared an identical vision. "Neither Tom nor I wanted to simply re-create the film on stage," says Mackintosh. "We had to find a new structure, incorporating the books — which have a very different tone — and some new ideas."

So Mackintosh drafted a synopsis, then employed composer George Styles and lyricist Anthony Drewe to write six new songs. Fellowes identified weaknesses in both the books and the film. "The role of the mother, Mrs. Banks, is sketchy in the books," he says. "Disney made her a suffragette, but that idea isn't funny anymore. I found an illustration of Mrs. Banks crying into her hands and thought, 'That's it!' This is the story of a family in trouble — which is why they need Mary. So we made Mrs. Banks an ex-actress trying to be the wife and mother that her husband and children want, but who has in the process lost her identity. It works because women in the audience can relate to that."

Relative unknowns have been cast in the leads. Laura Michelle Kelly, 23, has appeared in My Fair Lady for Mackintosh and on Broadway, but this is her first shot at originating a star role. Wiry 33-year-old Gavin Lee was even more of an outsider for the role of Bert, the chimney sweep. He auditioned to be an understudy, but Mackintosh identified him as "the real thing." He loves Bert and Mary's will-they-won't-they relationship. "The audience are desperate for them to kiss. Bert thinks she's" — he pauses, searching for the right word — "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

With so much riding on Poppins' magic umbrella, the producers hope audiences will feel the same way — even though the little ones won't get to meet her.

• JAMES INVERNE | London
• Will Mary Poppins fly to the rescue of London's West End?