The Sound of Music

It’s hard to believe that “The Sound of Music first opened on Broadway in 1959 winning 5 Tony Awards, and in London’s West End in 1961. Numerous productions and revivals later, it is still a great favourite with audiences and many thespians ( professional & amateur) started their stage careers as one of the Von Trapp children! L.M.S. chose to celebrate their 60th Anniversary with this iconic show (believe it or not they had never done it before!) – and having not reviewed it for a number of years, I was delighted that it was one of the first shows I have attended since theatres opened up after the pandemic.

A ‘steady’ pace was adopted by MD Doherty for the opening numbers.  “How do you solve a Problem like Maria” was a little slow for my liking but the nuns singing was excellent as they chanted in Latin. As Maria, Caitlyn McCrea was delightfully gentle while fun-loving and animated. Her vocals were expressive and diction perfect while rapport with every cast member excellent. She was suitably respectful when called into the office of the Mother Abbess – Susan Wilson played the latter with authority but a hint of fun.  Susan’s excellent singing voice was not really on show until she did full justice to “Climb Every Mountain”. Her three next-in-command Nuns – Sisters Margaretta, Sophia and Berthe – were ably played by Lorraine Roddy, Aoife Lennon and Emer McCaffrey. These are fairly small roles but they have a big impact – “How do you solve a problem” is a favourite with audiences.

In the Von Trapp mansion, Housekeeper Frau Schmidt was played with great character by Maureen Tolley and Franz (Matthew McLaughlin) surprised many audience members when he changed sides to support the Nazi Anschluss when Herr Zeller (Colin Ash) and Admiral Von Schreiber (Dan McCafferty) arrived to persuade Captain Von Trapp to accept a Nazi Naval commission.  Max Detweiller (Brendan Brady) raised a few laughs and hovered between Austrian and German support  “for the sake of the Kaltzberg Festival!”. Nevertheless he helped the Von Trapp family to escape. Natalie Armstrong was a convincing Baroness Elsa Schraeder – she tried hard to accept Georg’s views on the Anschluss but sensibly saw that Maria was destined to become his wife and mother to his children. David Keown took the role of Captain Georg Von Trapp. Having been widowed and left with 7 children, he was bringing them up the only way he knew – as the Naval Captain of a ship! David was convincing in his stern dealings with his children and in his shock when Maria blew a whistle at him! His infatuation with the Baroness and then the gradual change in his demeanour as he developed feelings for Maria was credible as was his sharp refusal to accept the German takeover of his beloved Austria. As Maria was drawn to him so was the audience – there was good chemistry between Caitlin and David.

Led by Holly Deane as Liesl, the children did a great job. Freya Cummings (Louisa), Bella Kyte (Brigitta), Francesca Kelly (Marta), & Lilymay Tolley (Gretl) and the boys Aaron Johnston (Friedrich), & Joshua Concannon (Kurt) all developed their own character traits with Liesl and Gretl getting the best chances to shine. As Liesl, Holly had her special “Sixteen going on Seventeen” with Simon Quigg as Rolf. Although a little old for the role, Simon related well to Holly and their dance break was lovely.

The set was from Prosceneium Scenery and Properties Hire and had many scene changes which were moved very efficiently – LMS are so lucky to perform in a theatre with flying facilities. However, a mistake was made to keep the mountain cloth behind the open mansion french windows during patio scenes. This created problems when actors appeared to go outside to answer the phone and so forth! If there was no indoor cloth, a dimly lit plain cyc would have been better behind the windows. There was also sometimes confusion when people exited on different sides when going to the same place – I like to establish in my mind where the unseen front door, stairs, concert hall exit etc.is situated. Props were all suitable  - a lovely chaise longue in the drawing room, garden furniture on the patio and double bed in Maria’s bedroom in particular. (I wonder how Maria made eight outfits from the curtains we saw in her room?! Perhaps there were curtained windows we couldn’t see on the other side of the room!!) Costumes from Utopia and Addis Blair were suitable and fairly standard for the piece – all looked fresh and fitted well. Wigs and hairstyles were mostly authentic to period and location. Lighting was not spectacular but appropriate and Sound was problem free.

We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon at Londonderry Musical Society’s “Sound of Music” and thank everyone involved with the production. The icing on the cake was being able to present NODA Long Service Medals to Dawn Stevenson, Christine Deans and Donald Hill (President & Founding member). It is great to see the dedication of members to their society and to show that they are appreciated.

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