Austria, 1938. Maria (Katie Shearman) is keen to devote her life to God, but God’s representative on Earth isn’t quite so certain. So the formidable but kindly Mother Abbess (Megan Llewellyn) decides that Maria should spend the summer as the governess of the Von Trapp children.
They number seven and have proven to be something of a handful in the past. More than one governess has run screaming from Captain Von Trapp’s palatial house, vowing never to return. And if the children are problematic, then Von Trapp himself (a lonely and isolated man following the death of his wife) also requires delicate handling.
But the open-hearted Maria proves to be what they all need. Someone with the spirit of music deep within them ….
An evergreen classic musical, debuting in 1959, it’s easy to see why The Sound of Music still endures today. It may be sentimental (although who doesn’t love a love story?) but it also has a darker side as the optimism of the first act gives way in the second to the bleak reality of life under the Nazi jackboot.
This afternoon Katie Shearman was understudying for the absent Lucy O’Byrne. I don’t know how often Katie has played the role, but it certainly wasn’t a case of second best. She was simply perfect as Maria – a mixture of vulnerability and steel (vulnerable when reflecting on her forbidden love for Von Trapp and pleasantly steely when confronting him for the first time about the martinet way he speaks to his children). From the iconic title song, through to My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi and The Lonely Goatherd (amongst others), she was spot on each time.
Neil McDermott makes for a suitably imposing and husky Von Trapp. One of many sentimental moments occurs when the power of Maria is enough all by itself to make him sing again (something he hasn’t done since the death of his wife). I know that my buttons are being pushed, but it’s still a lump in the throat moment.
The Sound of Music comes packed with familiar standards, one after another. Shearman’s My Favourite Things is an early highlight whilst Megan Llewellyn raises the Abbey roof (and closes the first act with a bang) with a barnstorming Climb Every Mountain. No wonder that she received such a rousing reception at the curtain call.
You also can’t go wrong with a gaggle of cute children and The Sound of Music has them in spades (one of three rotating troops of six who provide plenty of awww moments as well as some proper acting and singing).
With Katie Shearman (who normally plays Liesl, eldest of the Von Trapp children) moving up to play Maria, that meant that Holly Willock stepped up to tackle Liesl. As with Shearman, it was an incredibly assured performance (again, I don’t know how many times she’s played the role, but she didn’t put a foot wrong)
Willock has several key moments early on with Jordan Olivier’s lovelorn Rolf. But his dewy-eyed passion for Liesel gives way later to a harder edged pragmatism as he – and pretty much everybody else in the village – swiftly adjusts to life under the Nazis. The fact that Von Trapp can’t means that a question mark hangs over him, his children and his new wife Maria.
A definite highlight of the first act is the duet and dance between Willock and Oliver (Sixteen Going on Seventeen). Simply delightful.
Howard Samuels offers a spot of light relief as Max, an unabashed freeloader and friend of Von Trapp – but one who has a good heart deep down. Kara Lane also catches the eye as Elsa Schrader – at one time seemingly destined to become the new Baroness Von Trapp (before Maria appears that is).
The ensemble cast is one of the strongest I can remember for any production, with quality throughout. Zoe Ann Bown and Lucy Miller as Sisters Margaretta and Berthe mix musical dexterity with comic moments whilst Jon De Ville and Pippa Winslow as Franz and Frau Schmidt (Von Trapp’s servants) are rock solid. Franz’s Nazi salute in the second act is a brief, but chilling, moment.
The roars of approval at the curtain call made it clear that this afternoon’s audience were highly satisfied and so was I. Led by a spellbinding performance from Katie Shearman this was a real treat. An old warhorse it may be, but The Sound of Music still has the power to spellbind an audience for nearly two and a half hours. A classy production.
Theatre Musings 