NORWICH – Longtime director and teacher, Mark Sands, made his final curtain call after 22 years last Sunday at Norwich High School with his dream musical “Mary Poppins.”

NHS's “Mary Poppins,” a musical Sands had dreamed of directing from the beginning, was the first high school musical to have all three shows sold out, and Sands said they were already sold out before the first show last Friday.

The multi-talented cast sang favorites such as “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Step in Time.”

Sands said the standing ovation for “Step in Time” was the loudest and longest for any song in any musical he had directed at the high school.

“Step in Time” elicited a roar of cheers and interactive, in-step clapping from the audience as the coordinated members of the cast tap danced, did two-person cartwheels and stepped in time.

During the song, one of the lead characters, Burt – while attached to a wire – walked up the wall to a platform on the ceiling, was moved to the center of the stage while hanging from the platform in the rafters and did multiple back flips as he was being lowered from the ceiling.