Anyone for Tea?

La son de musique

Anna & myself finally got to see 'The Sound of Music' stage show last night, and mighty impressive it was... firstly, from a technical point of view - mounting a large section stage on a gimbal so they could move it up/down or tilt it towards or away from the audience. Then mounting the various stages on either motorised tracks or dropping them down from the ceiling, etc...

We'd been through a fair old hoo-har to actually get to see a night of the show with Connie Fisher in it. Yes, of all the 'reality' TV programs we'd been addicted to that one! Even after having lost her voice (which prompted us to swap our tickets the first time) and then having to take two days a week off to maintain it (which prompted us to swap our tickets a second time) - it was well worth it, she's perfect for the role - in fact (dare I say it) perhaps more convincing than even Julie Andrews in the film version...

The children were also very good, especially the youngest who was extensively cute and had some very good timing for the laughs ;-)

Only details that slightly annoyed me was that there was a fair amount less "getting to know each other" time in the stage version here, so the transition from arrival to chummy mateyness was all over in about twenty seconds or so! Also, some of the nuns were rather too extensively tanned for a life in the Abbey, and neither of the male-leads really convince either - Alexander Hanson was just too 'nice' all the way though, never really seeming to dominate a scene, and the lad playing Ralph didn't really make me believe that Liesl could actually like him at all!

The sound design was excellent, though perhaps a bit 'synthetic' for my tastes, and there was also a high pitched squeal at various points - but I couldn't tell whether that was a bit of WD40 needed on the stage gimbal, or the percussionist's triangle with a load of EQ.

The other surprise was that the Upper Circle was only about half full, which didn't really lend itself well to a rip-roaring end - and that there only seemed to be one set of men's loos, at the other end of the venue! But overall, it's a great play, done without extensive flapping or cheese, musically very tight, engaging and with atmosphere and passion in abundance.

Yeah.... go and see it - when Connie's there!

posted by RichB @ Wednesday, May 02, 2007