Swirling stars, an airborne nanny, tap dancing on the ceiling, brilliant color and magic through most of a three hour production… the practically perfect “Mary Poppins” will surely appeal to parents and grandparents as much as to shorter theater patrons.

“How did they do that?” will be the question at any age as the Banks’ Cherry Tree Lane house unfolds, folds, reverses; chimney sweeps and the fabled Mary Poppins appear from chimneys onto star-topped roofs, stars shoot out over audience heads, statues in the park start to dance and a seemingly-sturdy bank appears and disappears in minutes.

A live orchestra plays songs familiar from the 1964 film plus more written for this musical and 250 costume changes are lightning fast.

The notable nanny, who floats into the lives of a London family who needs her via an umbrella with a parrot head handle, first entered the fertile imagination of Australian writer Pamela L. Travers and spun out onto the printed page in 1934. Seven more books followed through 1991, although Travers continued to insist that she didn’t invent Mary Poppins — she just came. (In Travers’ childhood, there was a nanny with a parrot head umbrella).

Walt Disney sensed a hit movie there, but it took him 20 years to convince Travers to sell him the rights, and she was signed on as a consultant who made the process more than usually difficult. The setting was changed from 1930s London to the Edwardian period.

At 88, she started work on a screen sequel that never saw the light, but the material was used by writer co-writer Brian Shipley when she agreed to a stage musical treatment, suggesting that dance was the key to retelling the story onstage.

Caroline Sheen, who has played the role in London, joined the touring cast before the Denver performances, bringing a fine sense of humor and strong voice to join with wonderful original cast dancer/actor Gavin Lee, who plays Bert the Chimney sweep and ties story and scenic changes together with a swish of his broom.

Of course the distant father and distracted mother get on a wave length with their kids and at last Mary Poppins sails away into the night, leaving everything in spit-spot shape.

This is among the most imaginatively staged entertainments to come our way.

“Mary Poppins” plays through April 4 at the Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets: 303-893-4100, www.denvercenter.org. or at TicketsWest, King Soopers.