The Daily Mail reports (via Broadway.com) that up-and-coming theater actress Laura Michelle Kelly “will play the ‘practically perfect in every way’ nanny in the upcoming stage musical” of Mary Poppins. The 22 year old’s other credits include Beauty and the Beast (as Belle), Les Misérables (as Eponine), South Pacific, The King and I, Annie, Awesome, Peter Pan (as Wendy), The Sound of Music, Sleeping Beauty, La Bohéme, A Christmas Carol (as the Ghost of Christmas Past), Whistle Down the Wind (as Swallow), and Mamma Mia! (as Sophie). She also played Eliza Doolittle in the revival of My Fair Lady (picture on the right) “which was produced by Cameron Mackintosh, who is working on Mary Poppins with Disney Theatricals”. Kelly was the first recipient of the BBC’s Voice of Musical Theatre Award, a worldwide competition which aired on Radio 2. Rumor has it that she has turned down the starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical The Woman in White to play Mary Poppins.