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Review: The Sound of Music

We all search for them, even if we might not accept it.
We certainly miss them. And in a cold and dark December night we might even pay for them…

I am talking about emotions, feelgood ones, the kind of emotions you will only get from a perfect night at the theatre with a musical.
How about a classic one? A show where you sing along knowing all the lyrics by heart? Songs such as Do-re-mi, My Favourite Things, The Sound of Music will, I am sure, ring a bell or two.

This production was originally written by Rodgers and Hammerstein and was then adapted into the famous 1965 film with Julie Andrews. Let’s indulge in an unnecessary synopsis of the plot: Maria is to become a nun, but seems to be unfit for the role, and so she is sent to work as governess to the seven children of the naval officer Captain Georg Von Trapp. Thanks to her singing skills, joyful character and utter kindness, Maria conquers the whole family, including the captain. Then comes adventure, love, and, after a few bumps on the road, the inevitable happy ending to the strains of nuns singing. Of course music and the power it nurtures lie at the core of this show, for it is thanks to music that Maria and the Captain discover and face their feelings for each other. It is thanks to music once again that they escape from the Nazis towards the end.

Everything you can think of as entertaining is concentrated in this show: colourful sets and costumes, cheerful and straight forward acting and most of all clear and crisp singing from Maria (Connie Fisher and Philippa Buxton) and the rest of the cast.

In this magical world of music hall glossiness everything seems to work, the relationships are one-dimensional and surprisingly easy, everyone believes in feelings of love and righteousness. Life is simply “a white page to write on” as the song Sixteen going on Seventeen optimistically states. Whether or not you believe in such a rosy vision of life is not the question, it is more about indulging for a few hours, and really, what harm can it do, a little fairy tale in the wintery hour of the year?

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