Theatre mavens protect their own:

Flaks for stage producer Cameron Macintosh are making noise at Disney that they may not proceed with the long anticipated (and potentially very lucrative) "Mary Poppins" Broadway co-production if Tom Schumacher is not at the helm. Macintosh holds the PL Travers stage rights, Disney owns the movie script and score - - they can't proceed without one another.

Seems hard to believe Macintosh would stick it to himself monetarily to protect Tom, but... according to Variety, the threat is on the table.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021105/stage_nm/broadway_1

I hope they work it out. Mary Poppins would be a great live show. Has it ever been on Broadway? Seems like it has, but I must be thinking of something else..............

I'd have to agree; Mary Poppins would make a great Broadway show.

Mary Poppins on Broadway is a sure bet, financially. It's never been done on stage to date, as PL Travers would not give Disney the stage rights before her death. Instead, she gave them to fellow Brit Cameron Macintosh, which is why this co-production is so crucial to the WDC.

(Same reason there hasn't been a movie sequel... Disney doesn't have the rights. Travers herself worked on a dreadful sequel script for them back in the 80's, but the project fell apart due to creative control issues).