Musical: The Sound of Music

Date: Thursday 21^st February 2008
Time: 7.30 p.m.
Venue: The London Palladium
Director: Jeremy Sams
Choreographer: Arlene Philips
Producers: Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian
Starring: Connie Fisher as Maria Rainer and Simon Burke as Captain Georg von Trapp

The London Palladium in The Sound of Music mode.

Photo by me.

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Upper Circle, E1 – that was me. End of a row, high up, but still with a surprisingly good view despite vanishing nuns, Nazis and children, etc., at times as the curve of the balcony obscured stage left.

I was here, like so many others, to catch the How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? winner, Connie Fisher, in the role of Maria before she departs on Saturday. And she didn’t disappoint.

I’m only familiar, as I suspect most people are, with the film version of The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer – a film I rate in my top ten all-time films, (how cool am I?). The West End version stands on its own two feet working from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s original stage version.

Act I

After the Preludium from the nuns, a sloping stage revealed Maria ready to be swept away with The Sound of Music up on the mountains. The set was impressive, even if the rocks looked a little flat viewed from my high angle. (My criticisms are mostly pedantically nitpicky points like that…) The nuns then discussed Maria and once one got to grips with the spoken lines largely being played for comic effect, one warmed to them quickly. Margaret Preece shone as the Mother Abbess in My Favorite Things [sic.].

I could now write that Fisher, (no, I’m sorry I’m going to call her Connie – Fisher’s a bit too formal) – Connie inspired confidence in her performance with I Have Confidence, but I won’t go to such an obvious cliché. Except I just have. My only major quibble with Connie’s performance was her repeated breaking of the fourth wall – too many lines and looks throughout the show were shot at the audience. Oh and she waved her arms about a tiny bit too much for my liking, although I was relieved to see this arm waving had calmed down since the performance extracts I’ve seen on TV. (See, my criticisms really are petty.)

Maria Rainer (Connie Fisher) arrives at the von Trapp villa.

Photo by Tristram Kenton © 2007 The Really Useful Group, David Ian Productions and Live Nation

The children were brilliant. All were clearly focused on their parts and they won the audience as soon as they entered with their brilliant march. Connie worked well with the children and Do-Re-Mi was great fun.

Rolf and Liesl performed a playful and well-choreographed Sixteen Going On Seventeen before the storm broke loose, leading to My Favourite Things (Reprise). Then funny things happen with a certain set of curtains.

Paul Grunert made Max Detweiler a likeable rogue and showman and got the audience on side after nearly dropping cup he was putting down on a table, stumbling on his line and starting over twice, the second time after an exaggerated pause. Now, I hate the fourth wall being shattered, but for once I didn’t care. Grunert played with the audience and we appreciated his calm humour.  (Which, on reflection, reminds me of the last show I saw at the Palladium – Oliver! – many years ago, in which the brilliant Barry Humphries, (Dame Edna Everage), as Fagin accidentally dropped something into the orchestra pit and he and Oliver proceeded, at comic length, to retrieve it.) This became the unique moment for our The Sound of Music, which as with all West End shows, is performed endlessly on a juggernaut schedule. To have a moment an audience can call its own is special.

A song exclusive to the stage musical followed – How Can Love Survive? This was when the film got the better of me – I’m so used to Max and the Baroness not singing that seeing them do just this seemed incongruous. I think they work better as non-singing characters, although it is likely I only think this because that’s how the film is. I can’t be sure. It seems an obvious candidate if any songs needed cutting for time for the film at any rate. Also, although I tried hard not to compare like with like, I’m afraid the film’s Baroness won out for me, (Eleanor Parker turning in such a subtle performance in the film).  Don’t get me wrong, Fiona Sinnott did a sterling job – I just think Parker has the role nailed and so it was hardest for me with the Baroness to detach the film from what I was seeing. Also, I felt Connie and Simon Burke as the Captain lacked the instant spark of attraction on their first meeting that Andrews and Plummer have in the film, making the Baroness and the Captain’s relationship seem less destined to fail than it ought.

The Lonely Goatherd filled the stage with a lively town seen, Ländler brought Maria and the Captain closer and I started to hear sniffing from members of the audience from So Long, Farewell onwards and certainly I was getting that tingling feeling that only very good live theatre or top-rate television can inspire in me.

Climb Ev’ry Mountain was a tour de force for Preece and whilst I’d have liked to have seen the original revival Mother Abbess, Lesley Garrett, do this, it just goes to show these parts live on regardless of who’s playing them and so I suspect Hollyoaks’s Summer Strallen will do well as Maria when she takes over next Tuesday.

INTERVAL

Act II

In which it’s Nazis vs. nuns and the ending’s slightly different from the film, providing a few surprises, (which I won’t spoil – and no, it’s not that they don’t end by going off over the mountains, ‘cos they do – I’m talking a few character moments.)

The audience shuffled back to their seats, post-interval and the orchestra piped up with Entra’Acte. Sadly, I didn’t get the traditional ice cream, having run out of cash, so instead I bought expensive drinks and crisps from the bar to get the total over £5 so I could use my debit card. I was thirsty. The Palladium with a near full house of just under 2 286 punters, a full orchestra and cast and crew gets very hot and heat rises. Thankfully, it was not as hot as when I went to see Oliver!

Max and the Baroness sang again, this time with the Captain. Another stage-only song No Way To Stop It is a better song than How Can Love Survive? and it was now that I realised that Max and the Baroness singing works theatrically as in counterbalances Maria’s singing associates, the nuns. Here, the Captain can sing away with Max and the Baroness as Maria does with the nuns and it works in the musical context.

The Baroness’s departure was all to brief and Something Good was a little too comic for my liking. Burke seemed a little over-theatrical on just this one number, (otherwise he was excellent), and so the gentle romance lost some of its poignancy. (Oh, it’s so easy for me to nit-pick – I don’t mean to, I’m just trying to be honest with my opinions. But what do I know?)

The Wedding Processional, like the wedding in Les Misérables, was a triumphant moment. Sixteen Going On Seventeen (Reprise) was a good character moment for the now Maria von Trapp and Liesl. A slight slip on the timing of a harmony prompted a small mocking laugh from some portions of the audience which I felt was unnecessary. So what if a few lines are fluffed here and there, (which they were a small number of times throughout)? It’s live theatre. That happens.

Maria von Trapp (Connie Fisher) offers her step-daughter Liesl von Trapp (Amy Lennox) some advise.

Photo by Tristram Kenton © 2007 The Really Useful Group, David Ian Productions and Live Nation

The concert scene, (Do-Re-Mi (Reprise), Edelweiss (finally), So Long, Farewell (Reprise)) was magnificent and really drew the audience in. I wanted to be one of the Austrian audience members that sing along in the film. I didn’t burst into song in the theatre, though. Hardly appropriate behaviour. I won’t tell you what happens at this point, (although I mistook it at first for a fire safety curtain coming down in an emergency), because it would spoil the superb scene change that happens at this point should you go and see it. You really get a sense of the Nazi oppression as well at this point, all aided by this scene change.

There are a few differences towards the end between the film and the stage version. I won’t spoil them, but note, should you go and see it, Rolf during the Nazi’s searching of the Abbey and the more militant Nuns, (who at this point are less comic than those in the film).

Climb Ev’ry Mountain (Reprise) ensured everyone left with a smile on their face. The cast took their bows. Lots of bows – although much of the audience, including myself, gave a standing ovation – so they were deserved bows. And it’s fun to clap, so I didn’t mind too much. Then we all left into the night…

On the technical front, I’d just like to note that the orchestra, lighting and much of the set were all fantastic. The Palladium is also a magnificent theatre. Not as big, (because I was smaller), but as grand as I remembered it, it’s an astonishing bit of architecture in the heart of London. The microphones, whilst providing clear sound, did sound a little too electronic at times and, nitpicking again, having worked on the fly floor at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre with UCLU Stage Crew, I did notice some of nice-looking trees didn’t meet their ‘deads’ as they were lowered to the stage – the result being some slightly hovering trees. Never mind. They looked good. Oh and on the sound front, being able to hear a chattering from the assembled guests in the party scene, who at that point were hidden away upstage, as though they were stood behind me, was very effective – although I mistook it at first for someone on a mobile…

After the show

Doing an almost complete circuit of the Palladium, I finally found the Stage Door and found myself near the back of a fairly large crowd of eager fans. The Ensemble and Swing cast members all darted through the crowd. Shame, I’d have happily got their autographs too if they’d formed an orderly cue. You have to feel a little sorry for them as no one really recognises them off stage. Even some of the leads took a while to identify in their normal attire. The von Trapp children kept being mistaken for children from the audience. I didn’t get near enough to get the children’s autographs and they seemingly vanished into thin air as Connie came out.

Before she did, I got Liesl actress Amy Lennox, Max Detweiler actor Paul Grunert, Captain Georg von Trapp actor Simon Burke and the Mother Abbess actress Margaret Preece to sign my programme. I got to chat briefly with Burke and Preece – neither of which I thought I would end up getting autographs from as I suddenly found myself sandwiched between them as they signed other people’s stuff and I’d lent my pen to some old ladies… Both were really nice, although slightly bizarrely, Burke included his website address after his signature. Mind you, I shamelessly self-promote my own radio show and this website that I manage, so it’s pot calling the kettle black, really…

Connie finally made it out and managed to weave through the crowd rapidly meaning it dissipated quickly as people left satisfied. I was impressed that despite being quick to move around, she was quite happy to stop and chat, have photos taken by and with people and sign things. Considering she must have to do this night after night, the fact that she remains genuinely nice and friendly to her fans as oppose to being blasé about the attention is a real credit to her. She told people about the next projects she has lined up post-The Sound of Music – from what I could hear she’s presenting some awards and doing some TV work. She also revealed she was off to the pub. When she got to me, she happily signed my programme and brochure and I got a photo with her.

I would like to stress that my criticisms really are just nitpicks – I had a great night out watching a truly brilliant West End show with a superb cast and I was pleased to catch Connie before her exit – she has a stunning voice and has proved herself a very worthy winner and Maria.

Connie Fisher and I after the show. She was really nice.
Photo by a fellow autograph-hunter from the audience.