The Sound of Music

I can remember as a child, my parents buying the LP of The Sound of Music and playing it so often that I still can remember all the words. It was with great pleasure that we were reminded just how timeless this musical is with all the joy, happiness and hope that exudes from the contents, based on this true story.

For all of you who have never seen it, which can be very few, it involves the Von Trapp family who fled Austria in 1938 on the eve of the Anschluss and settled in the USA where they had a very successful career as a touring singing, musical group. A Broadway show in 1959 followed with a film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in 1965.

Opening the show were the nuns of the Abbey with their beautiful voices singing like angels and giving us a really beautiful rendition of hymns in Latin, finishing with 'Alleluia'. I loved the director (David James), vision of having some of the nuns walk down the two aisles of the theatre making the feeling of being in the Abbey even more real; it really did raise the hairs on the back of the neck, to hear them singing as they passed.

One of the stars of the show has to be Janet Moore as the Mother Abbess. She had a simply stunning, powerful voice. What a coup for the company to have Janet, as she just stole the show every time she came on. Showing strength, understanding and love for Maria, she really did give us a special evening with her flawless singing.  Sister Margaretta, Sister Sophia and Sister Berthe (Emma Byatt, Helen Wilson and Vicky Walker) all had excellent voices and gave good support to the Mother Abbess.

We then meet Maria the postulant nun who had run off to the hills to sing 'The Sound of Music'. What a treat to have the professionally trained Kayleigh McEvoy acting in this role. Her pure tones and enunciation of every syllable as she sung was such a joy. Her energy, excitement and the naivety of her character shone through. She acted with conviction, it was a real pleasure to listen and watch her. I understand that this was the second time she has acted in this role, the last time being 2013.

In the next scene we are introduced to Captain Von Trapp and his seven children. Professionally trained Jonathan Davis was the epitome of the strict, austere naval captain, using his whistle to get his children to march to attention whenever he was home. This did not occur very often, hence leaving them to the mercies of the governess. Jonathan gave us the gravitas of the Captain with a stern almost cold side but soon melted when he fell in love with Maria. I did love his quiet soft rendition of Edelweiss just before they escaped the Nazis.

The children were a joy. On the Friday night that we watched the show, we had Charlotte Fowle as Liesl actually looking sixteen which was a good choice as so often I have seen this role played by far older girls. With a crystal clear voice she sang very sweetly with Rolf (Josh O'Brien) who she was in love with. Both of them worked well together although I did feel a bit of constraint and stiffness of acting when they danced together but I understand that this is Josh’s first role so I'm sure as he carries on performing he will gain the experience to relax a little more on stage. He did show his tender side when they sang together and later on as the hostile Hitler Youth, redeeming himself by not revealing the whereabouts of the family in the Abbey Gardens. The rest of the children were incredibly sweet and worked well as a team. Their rendition of Do- Re-Mi was really well choregraphed. Gene Gardiner (Friedrich) Erin Habbershaw (Louisa) Samuel Walker (Kurt) Matilda Davis (Brigitta) Scarlett Parkinson-Osborne (Marta) and Aurelia Stevenson (Gretl) engaged with the audience and had us all smiling every time they appeared.

Paul Osborne as Max Detweiler was constantly trying to persuade Von Trapp to conceal his nationalistic beliefs for the sake of his family, as was Helen Quigley as Elsa Schraeder who intended to marry Von Trapp. I felt I needed a little more from Paul, showing how worried he was for them all but he provided obvious camaraderie with the Captain and the Baroness. Helen was wonderfully elegant and almost detached from anything bar trying to get her man, whilst trying to find favour with his children but failing when she realises that she is no match for Maria. She had a charming singing voice and was an accomplished actor on the stage. Franz (David Ehren) and Frau Schmitt (Alison Carmichael) ably supported the cast.

Musical Director Gerald Hindes with his large orchestra of twenty gave us a beautiful, skilful renditions of all the favourite numbers and only sometimes did I feel they overshadowed the singers but this could be the fault of the sound team who didn't seem to realise that we couldn't hear some of the speaking and didn't compensate for this. Sound was also an issue when they had the thunder which was so loud we lost the children's voices. Lighting also provided some unusual effects.

I have to say that I would have preferred not to have had the ensemble coming on stage as puppets, during the 'Lonely Goatherd' night scene. They sometimes totally blocked the children and Maria; I would have preferred this to have been done in a simpler way. Unfortunately, the wonder of the scared children was totally lost as the cast danced in front of them. I know directors want to try new things and this is as it should be but while this is only my opinion, for me this did not work.

Costumes and props were excellent, I must congratulate Janet Wintle and Linda Hindes for all the hard work they put into each show.. These ladies must work tirelessly and should be commended.

We really enjoyed this production, appreciating the hard work and commitment it demands of both the cast and production team to create such a special show. We would like to thank Eric Smart for ably looking after us during the interval with the welcome refreshments. We congratulate everyone and look forward to Trinity’s next show.

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