The Sound of Music – Chichester Festival Theatre

Gina Beck and Janis Kelly in The Sound of Music at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Picture: Manuel Harlan

The Sound of Music continues at Chichester Festival Theatre until 3 September 2023.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

If you are looking for a safe, traditional enjoyable and relatively entertaining production of The Sound of Music which pretty much follows the path of the original stage version (1959) with obvious nods to the hit movie adaptation (1965), then it’s likely Adam Penfold’s take on the musical theatre classic won’t disappoint.

Best of all, a great deal of respect is paid to the score, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s poignant, final collaboration, thanks to the lush sounds emanating from the orchestra led by musical director Matt Samer (musical supervisor is Gareth Valentine), infectious orchestrations (originally by Robert Russell Bennett, adapted by Larry Blank and Mark Cumberland, sound design by Paul Groothuis) and some mighty fine vocals.

Indeed, one of the highlights, in the first few minutes and throughout the production, is the beauty of the choral music sung by the nuns of Salzburg’s Nonnberg Abbey.

It would be easy to glance over the significant role played by The Mother Abbess and the Sisters, not only in the life of Maria (Gina Beck), but in the integrity of the story being told, yet there are no caricatures here. While the wedding between Maria and Captain von Trapp is something of a carbon copy of the Robert Wise-directed film, it is the sound of worship during the ceremony that potentially takes the scene to a higher level.

It is within the Abbey that we are also treated to the musical pinnacle of the show via Janis Kelly’s inspiring, heartrending and powerful interpretation of ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ (the song closes both Acts I and II).

Kelly, whose biog includes credits at flagship opera companies all over the world, provides one of the few goosebumps moments, another being Edward Harrison (as Captain von Trapp), struggling with his emotions as he performs ‘Edelweiss’, knowing he is about to flee the country he loves with all his heart. Nazi stormtroopers stand at the exits and in every aisle, adding to the intensity both onstage and off

However, this kind of vitality is not sustained and what could have been awesome turns out more often than not to be quite ordinary. We all know the old adage, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ (I wasn’t expecting a radical reinterpretation of The Sound of Music on the same scale as the current West End production of Oklahoma!), but where’s the harm in bringing a subtle, fresh touch to the proceedings so that the piece resonates with an audience beyond simply being a big dose of nostalgia?

I am sure there are plenty of traditionalists that would disagree, and see The Sound of Music as a period piece, but do we really want to hear Maria sing: ‘Gone are your old ideas of life; The old ideas grow dim; Lo and behold you’re someone’s wife; And you belong to him’ without any irony at all? And that’s before we even get on to the contemporary relevance of what happened in Austria during the Anschluss in March 1938.

Chichester’s recent production of another Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, South Pacific (also starring Beck), was able to stay true to the piece while having the imagination to breathe new life into the storytelling for a contemporary audience, but that is missing here. Instead, a large portion of what remains is restricted by lashings of sentimentality.

It doesn’t mean that there aren’t many delightful performances to savour, but it does feel like some of the artists are restricted by the way they have been directed and the fast pace at which the musical races along. There is little time for the protagonists to make connections with each other and give the audience space to emotionally engage with their characters.

Despite all this, Lauren Conroy and Dylan Mason, as Liesl and Rolf, give us an absolutely charming ‘Sixteen Going On Seventeen’ (Conroy is particularly engaging); and Emma Williams and Ako Mitchell, playing Elsa and Max, are first-class in their duets, particularly the topical ‘No Way to Stop It’ (although perhaps Max is cynical rather than likeable a lot of the time).

The Green team of von Trapp children were on duty on opening night – Dylan Trigger (Friedrich), Sasha Watson-Lobo (Louisa), Vishal Soni (Kurt), Audrey Kattan (Brigitta), Maya Sewrey (Marta) and Felicity Walton (Gretl). These talented youngsters ticked all the boxes in this very conventional production and also showcased Lizzie Gee’s delightful choreography which often raises the spirits (‘Do-Re-Mi’ is a joy).

The romance between Maria and the Captain has little time to develop, so the number ‘Something Good’ fails to have the emotional impact one would hope for, but the union does become more believable in the musical’s final stages.

Gina Beck is sometimes hampered by the production’s flaws, but she still remains an enchanting Maria, strongest perhaps when she is given the opportunity to connect with her inner child and embrace the more upbeat R&H numbers. It’s then that she displays a real sparkle.

It’s such a shame then that when Maria, the Captain and numerous other characters speak of the beauty of the mountainous terrain, designer Robert Jones’ set and Johanna Town’s lighting does little to conjure up the mesmerising landscape we hear so much about. Instead a dark, sturdy, rocky backdrop – merged with the Abbey setting – permanently overlooks all the onstage action, not really adding to the atmosphere and limiting what else can be achieved in the rest of the space. Where are the hills that fill the heart with the sound of music?

So, a mixed bag of a production on many levels which is unlikely to enjoy the same transfer success as previous Chichester musicals like South Pacific and Crazy For You. But if you are a first-timer to The Sound of Music, or you just like your packages neatly tied up with string, it might be for you.

Lisa Martland