Maria (Charlotte Wakefield) and the von Trapp children in The Sound of Music at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London. Picture: Johan Persson
The Sound of Music continues at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London until 7 September.
Do we need another The Sound of Music just yet? That question lingered in my mind while heading for the Open Air Theatre on a rainy Monday evening, but the answer turned out to be yes.
True the last revival at the London Palladium, orignally with Connie Fisher in the lead role, and the recent Paris production were memorable, plus the film version of The Sound of Music – unlike other Rodgers and Hammerstein classics – is so good that few stage revivals can stand up to it. Yet what we have here is the definitive stage version. Never have I seen the show better staged than by Rachel Kavanaugh who fully integrates the whole Regent’s Park venue into the telling of the story.
The biggest surprise of the evening is the brilliant, inventive and intricate choreography of Alistair David, as performed by an ensemble which includes the most talented group of children I have ever seen as the von Trapp family.
Charlotte Wakefield exudes the life and soul of Maria Rainer, right from her first entrance, her energy and innocence are simply perfect for the part. Michael Xavier, excellent as always, makes a strong but deeply human Captain von Trapp, so moving in his rendition of ‘Edelweiss’. It was as if one was hearing it for the first time.
Helene Colby is delightfuly camp as the Baroness Baroness Elbefeld, as is Michael Matus as the pushy Max Detweiler. In the role of Mother Abbess, Helen Hobson delivers an impressive and moving ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’, and Josha Tonks brings his youthful elan to Rolf. Seeing such a great singer as Stuart Matthew Price in the non-singing part of Franz may well be the only frustrating moment of this truly magical evening.
Not to forget the set and costume design both by Peter McKintosh which perfectly work in the venue. Succeeding in using a single set so effectively for a libretto covering so many locations is incredible.
It is great to see that the Open Air productions are getting better and better each year. My only wish would be that such a brillant team would, perhaps, on another occasion, also bring their inventiveness and talent to a lesser-known property.
Patrick Honore
www.openairtheatre.com/production/the-sound-of-music
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