Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Chichester Festival Theatre

The Sound of Music jumped the shark earlier than most shows. I recall a television interviewer talking to the queue of Nazis and nuns lined up for one of the infamous Prince Charles Cinema singalong screenings, coming across a fan in a full rubber bodysuit of brightest yellow - his name was Ray of course, a drop of golden sun…

So, short of making the Gauleiter the good guy, there’s no room to follow the fashion of radical reinterpretations of family favourites so, wisely, Adam Penfold doesn’t try, giving us a straight (no giggling now) production, surprisingly Chichester’s first ever. Shorn of such indulgent interference, the musical theatre juggernaut’s considerable strengths (and some weaknesses) come through loud and clear.

Principally, the songs are given full value by Matt Samer’s orchestra and the consistently excellent singing. The ever-reliable Gina Beck takes on Maria, delving only occasionally into her highest register, but carrying more impact as a result. She brings a freshness to numbers as familiar as “My Favourite Things” and “The Lonely Goatherd” highlighting the wit of Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics and the shameless catchiness of Richard Rodgers’ melodies. She also plays the aspirant nun a little older, a little less naive than can sometimes be the case which, allied to Edward Harrison’s younger looking Captain von Trapp, spikes 21st century awkward questions when he breaks off his engagement and elopes with the nanny.

Leisel (Lauren Conroy) and the children (on press night, Dylan Trigger, Sasha Watson-Lobo, Vishal Soni, Audrey Kattan, Maya Sewrey and Felicity Walton) have plenty to do and do it well. There’s always a risk of them becoming cyphers, about as realistic as the puppets in the movie, but you do get the feeling that they’re real children, if not quite as damaged as they might be by the trauma of their upbringing. In keeping with the approach throughout, the darkness and melancholy that is never far from R and H’s work is by-passed rather than explored. 

That lends a coldness rather than an evil to Emma Williams as Frau Schraeder, presented, like Ako Mitchell’s knockabout fixer, Max Detweiler, as a pragmatist in the face of the Austrian Anschluss rather than an enthusiast. Given the appalling war in Ukraine, and Max already being the character who exemplifies the “Let’s just get along” strand of opinion, that felt a little like a cop out. It also draws a little of the sting from “Edelweiss”, a statement of national defiance in the face of humiliation that we never quite see.

Not so the magnificent “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, the great secular hymn of the 20th century and a song about which I have thought long and hard. Janis Kelly gives its stirring poignancy full value and I defy anyone to listen carefully to the lyric and not be moved by its message of hope and, for me, regret too. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the first act closer is worth the admission on its own.

So the crowdpleaser to end all crowdpleasers will woo young and old alike all summer long in this wonderfully comfortable theatre with its drinks on the lawn outside and its remarkably flexible set (good work from Robert Jones throughout) inside. Whether that’s quite enough in terms of exploring the full potential of the work itself is, perhaps, more of an issue for reviewers than the general public, who want a good time and get a good time, waving the Captain, his wife and his children to safety in Switzerland with a So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye.           

The Sound of Music is at Chichester Festival Theatre until 3 September

Photo Credit: Manuel Harlan

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