Seeing Sound of Music The Musical tonight just reminded me how simply brilliant the score was in the movie. The songs are just so sing-a-longable (did I just make up a new word?) that it even had the dude behind us humming along (trust me – he was the last person you would expect to be humming along to Sound of Music!)

Connie Fisher’s run as Maria had ended just a couple of weeks ago hence the sudden availability of discounted tickets. The new Maria however, Summer Strallen, was equally up to the job. If you follow the publicity surrounding her you’d know that she was put into Hollyoaks as a character who was auditioning for and eventually won the Maria role in the musical and then her character, also called Summer, left the show and thus leading to Strallen actually making her debut in the musical we saw tonight.

I totally enjoyed the production tonight and it is definitely one of the premier musicals showing at the West End at the moment. The performances were superb with the singing often causing me goosebumps. Surprisingly I could even understand every word that was sung which shows just how clear and pitch perfect the singing was. The orchestra were fantastic and deservedly had a prominent position at the front of the stage. From an acting perspective most of the cast played their roles perfectly and I thought Summer in particularly really shined – her facial expressions and body language were exactly how I would have expected Maria to act (though I must admit much of my expectations come from the 1965 movie.) The kids were excellent as well though the two older kids were a little younger than I expected them to be.

Where Sound of Music totally stunned was the set – it was huge, it was magnificent, it was dramatic and very well thought out – including conveying the impression that you’re up in the mountains at the beginning and end of the show. The scene changes were just amazing – seamless and transporting inside and out the house, to the nunnery, to the mountains.

This is one fantastic musical and the standing ovationo the cast received at the end was well deserved.