The Sound Of Music @ The Mayflower, Southampton
Ah, the Sound of Music… the marmite of musical theatre! Many love it, some hate it with a passion. A select few are pretty ambivalent. Us? We fall somewhere in between… There are some wonderful moments, and some passages that are tremendously clunky.
Before this production begins it’s clear that the “love it” category are the majority. The Mayflower is packed with people of all ages, eagerly awaiting the opening notes of this new production (indeed the Mayflower’s wonderful communications manager Robin is humming Do-Re-Mi when we arrive to collect our tickets).
The show opens a little slow, some (beautiful) choral singing heralds the arrival of nuns and the simple, but effective, set gives the immediate impression of the stillness and solitude of the abbey.
Soon enough Maria appears and it’s immediately clear that Danielle Hope is perfectly cast. Her voice is crystal clear and she has an innocence about her that is often lacking. We also quickly realise that Musical Director David Steadman is a hero! All too often this score can come across as plodding, but he whips through many of the tunes, investing them with more energy than we’ve seen previously.
We won’t waste time explaining the plot… you all know it already, surely? Suffice it to say that there are nuns, more nuns, Nazis and a whole heap of kids in sailor outfits and lederhosen.
Ah yes, the kids. The children here are charming and sing beautifully. They’re ably martialled by Grace Chapman as eldest daughter Liesl. She is in fact one of the great treats of the show, sweet and loving but with a twinkle in the eye that tells much more about this young girl who is becoming an adult than the lyrics of the insipid Sixteen Going On Seventeen do. She shines in this number, singing wonderfully, dancing beautifully and eclipsing poor Luke George who struggles to craft any real character. In his defence Rolf might be one of the blandest, most wishy-washy characters in musical theatre and he sings and dances pleasantly enough.
Jan Hartley as the Mother Abbess relishes every moment onstage and delivers a near-perfect rendition of Climb Ev’ry Mountain that may just be worth the price of admission on it’s own.
Sadly Steven Houghton lacks something as Captain Von Trapp, he’s fine in later scenes where he has warmed to his family and admitted his feelings for Maria, but is never believable as the starchy naval captain of the first act. Sarah Soetaert and Howard Samuels fare better, both making the most of their two dimensional characters and shining through some clunky scripts.
If you’re already a Sound of Music fan there’s much to love here, but if you’re not already a convert you probably won’t leave the theatre more inclined to see this again!
