Review: An Evening With Julie Andrews at Birmingham NIA

The national treasure was the victim of botched throat surgery in 1997, a procedure which she said destroyed her four-octave vocal range and left her unable to sing any note but bass.

Two years ago she vowed never to sing again in public, but on the first date of her UK speaking tour, Andrews could not resist belting out a few bars.

"I don't sing much these days," she told a packed audience at Birmingham's NIA. "But if you sing nice and loud I'll croak a few notes too."

The 78-year-old star of stage and screen was joined by singer Aled Jones for a rendition of Edelweiss, a song performed predominantly by her co-star Christopher Plummer's Captain von Trapp character in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music.

Taking on the lofty chords of 'Bless my homeland forever' may have been a risky move for the evergreen songstress in her current condition, but she carried it off with aplomb.

Unsurprisingly it was met with a lengthy standing ovation, but by that stage Andrews already had the audience firmly in the palm of her hand.

In a show that revolved around deeply personal anecdotes of her rich and colourful life, Andrews talked of love, family, friendships and her years on the silver screen. She also revealed that having worked with some of the most desirable leading men, it was fellow Hollywood star James Garner who holds a special place amongst a few of her favourite things.

"I'm not one to kiss and tell, but James Garner was special," said a blushing Andrews, when asked to divulge the identity of the best kisser she had worked with during her glittering career.

"I did three films with him and he was the man I did my first really passionate love scene with (in the 1964 film The Americanization of Emily).

"We were rolling over on the bed, tearing at each others clothing. I was getting hot under the collar and desperately trying to be professional about it.

"But when I got off the bed my legs just buckled. He was absolutely delicious. We never got together off screen but he became a dear friend."

The star of numerous hit shows on stage and screen, including Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, made a lot of 'dear friends' over the years, having first appeared on stage in London's West End at the age of 12.

But she said her second husband, Hollywood director Blake Edwards was the most special person she had ever met.

Edwards, who directed Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses, and the hugely successful Pink Panther film series died in 2010, aged 88, after 41 years of marriage to Andrews.

She said: "Blake was such a wonderful man, a real honey bun.

"I hold him in my heart wherever I go.

"Sometimes when he directed me in a love scene he would shout cut and come walking over. 'Julie, that's fine darling, but I know you can do it better'."

Born in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, these days Andrews rarely visits the UK from her home in Long Island in New York. And she revealed the last time she was in Birmingham the curtain almost came down on her career before it had really got started.

"The last time I was here I was 17 years old," she told the audience.

"I was performing in a play the producers hoped would make it to the West End, but I was absolutely terrible.

"The play was a complete failure, which is just as well because if it had made it to London my career would have ended there and then.

"Needless to say I forged ahead regardless."

And forge ahead she did. After debuting on Broadway in The Boyfriend at the age of 19, she received Tony Award nominations for the musicals My Fair Lady and Camelot.

It was during the later production when Walt Disney came to visit her backstage and invited her and first husband Tony Walton to Los Angeles to discuss a film he was working on.

The meeting would lead to her role in the 1964 film version of Mary Poppins which shot her to fame and won her an Oscar for Best Actress.

"He wined and dined us, took us to the racetrack and drove us around Disneyland in a gold car.

"It was magical. Tony was given a job as a set designer and I became Mary Poppins. I have often thought since, were we lucky or what?"

Andrews revealed it was not just fond memories she had taken from the film. After the cameras had stopped rolling the actress made sure she took a special memento away with her, which now performs a vital role at her Long Island home.

"I had the sense to ask for Mary Poppins' boots," she said. "I've held on to them all these years and they are now used as a doorstop in my house."

She added her Academy Award had only recently made an appearance in the Andrews' household: "For years I kept the Oscar in the attic because I just felt embarrassed about putting it on show."

But despite her success, Andrews announced her frustration that her squeaky clean image had often led to her grittier roles becoming overlooked.

For while cheery musical or comedic TV appearance on the likes of Sesame Street and short-lived sitcom Julie became her bread and butter, she proved herself to be capable of exploring a darker side to her character in films such as Hitchcock's Torn Curtain.

"I don't like that at all," she admitted. "People tend to forget the earthier moments in my career which I always think is a shame." It was a rare moment of openness on a night where Andrews focused on the gleaming positives while glossing over the more testing periods of her life.

The aforementioned throat surgery is alluded to but not mentioned, neither is her divorce from first husband and childhood sweetheart Tony Walton. There is also a distinct glossing over of her last visit to these shores in 2010, when a series of disastrous performances left critics and audiences less than impressed. She does mention her ankle replacement operation, although she seems quite pleased to be able to declare herself 'a bionic woman'.

The evening's best and worst moments come after the interval, when comfy chairs are pulled onto the stage and Andrews sits down to answer pre-prepared audience questions with host Aled Jones.

Asked to talk about some of the actors she has enjoyed working with Andrews fired them off like a shopping list of Hollywood greats.

Anecdotes fly out in rapid succession. There's Dudley Moore, "he gave me a whole new appreciation of Ravel's Boléro," and the 'naughty' Richard Burton, who went on a three-day booze binge but still managed to nail his role as King Arthur.

Grandmother-of-nine Andrews has also turned her hand to writing over the years, working as an author of children's books which she co-writes with her daughter Emma. It's something the audience are not likely to forget, as one of the night's few low points comes when a series of her books flash up on the big screen while the actress turned author turned publicist plugs: "This one is called Mandy; this is The Great American Mousical..."

But it is a minor quibble, and before the somewhat surprising musical conclusion, she talks us through a film of her incredible single-take rendition of Whistling Away the Dark. It's an incredibly moving moment, resulting in a stunned silence followed by manic applause from the audience.

A national treasure, the queen of the musical, Andrews still delivers a magical experience. You would expect nothing less from Mary Poppins.