The Sound of Music

Although a long way from the real story of the von Trapp family, The Sound of Music has always been a favourite thanks to Julie Andrews and the film. The stage play reflects the film's story but with a couple of new songs and the set design does a great job of moving us around the von Trapp home, Abbey and other areas. However, as a whole this production just failed to excite.

I know that this is musical theatre but to engage the audience you have to do more than face front and sing. The acting between songs let the production down, the childrens' singing certainly wasn't up to snuff and the direction left me cold. turning the amps up is also no substitute for singing stronger - the crescendo should belong to the performer not the sound man.

I excuse Lucy O'Bryne (Maria) from all of this as she sang beautifully, acted her socks off and grounded the whole show and I also enjoyed Duncan Smith's Max. Apart from that ...

When it came down to it, it was the direction that grated on me most. When the children sang their goodnight song and were still walking upstairs to bed the entire adult cast turned to the front, waved and sang "goodnight" ... why? You're miked up, we can hear you, face the children! Way too often we were sung to as the audience rather than the songs creating a stage reality between the characters. The "ballet" for Rolf and Liesl was painful to watch and throughout the show people moved around stage with no sense of purpose or intent - "I walk here because the director told me to ... and now I walk back for the same reason" ... come on, we can do better than that.

Disappointed