Palace Theatre, Manchester – until Saturday 17 March. Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
4****
The Sound Of Music is a musical loved by generations, with songs that everyone knows and enjoys to sing along to. The film starring Julie Andrews, is an instant classic and is a work of art. Set in Austria and just before the German invasion, the play focuses on Maria Rainer a woman planning on becoming a nun but she has trouble not being able to stop singing and being late, she is the sent to work as a governess for the seven Trapp children.
The musical had a talented cast with all of the nuns and children giving superb performances. Lucy O’Byrne who played Maria was a delight watch giving the fun and loving character that charms the audience just as much as she charms the children, her vocals are suited for the character being soft and kind but also making sure she’s heard. The male lead of the show Captain Von Trapp was played by Neil McDermott, the headstrong and stubborn character may seem hard to like at first but McDermott gave the character a realistic and lovable quality that we learned to respect his authority but love his authenticity. The Mother Abbess played by Megan Llewellyn had vocals that shocked the audience with her powerful voice that stunned the audience and made everyone talking away during the interval about how she sang. I have to bring it back to the seven Trapp children because the child acting was so good, none of them were out of place and the vocals were something to listen out for. The set was spectacular and we are given these beautiful stained glass windows and beautiful staircases, in different scenes the quick to change set, there was one point where the scene change took too long and you could see that backstage didn’t have enough time and as soon as part of the stage was revealed you could see some of the magic behind the curtain, but this wasn’t too much of an issues considering how epic the set was. The live orchestra played beautifully to the voices and made sure everything happened in time adding to the immersion of the play.
I took my friend who said The Sound Of Music was her favourite musical of all time and it was her dream to see it on stage, she said the stage production lived up to the film and she even cried at points in the show, if that doesn’t sell you I don’t know what will. I also loved the show that has got too many songs stuck in my head now. The show is at the Manchester palace until the 17th