Review: The Sound Of Music
- Posted on February 28, 2008 4:02 PM
- 0 comments
The Sound Of Music
Palladium Theatre, London
Review by Katie Spain
From the sound of Hollyoaks to the Sound of Music
It was never going to be a bad night at the theatre; the recipe was too hard to beat. “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens.” You don’t get much better than that on a cold London night – there’s less ‘happy’ in a can of laughing gas.
To be honest, I had my doubts about the inclusion of Summer Shaw in the lead role of Maria. How could a clever spot of cross genre marketing result in success? For those of you who don’t dabble in a bit of trash TV, here’s the low-down on the latest West End marketing move…
Hollyoaks character Summer Shaw joined the show three months ago. She dated OB (Darren Jeffries), auditioned for a role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical and wouldn’t you know it – landed herself the part of Maria. That’s when the drama kicked off; OB couldn’t face leaving Hollyoaks and Summer left him for a career on the West End. But it wasn’t as tragic as it seemed.
The aftermath involved ‘soap’ fans buying theatre tickets and Mr Lloyd Webber’s mug on TV. Let’s face it, after ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?’ found the wonderful Connie Fisher, you can hardly blame him. It’s all about bums on seats – and at last night’s ‘Summer Strallen’ debut, there were a few famous posteriors amongst them. “Look there’s Nancy!”, “Oooh, was that OB?” bounced off the Palladium Theatre walls.
It could have all gone horribly wrong but Lloyd Webber sure knows how to cast a star. From the moment the rolling Alps engulfed the stage, Strallen enchanted. I went in mentally preparing myself to verbally eat her alive but came out with an alarming lack of ammo. In fact, I came out gushing. Score one to Strallen. It took a little while for her ‘Maria-isms’ to kick in but when they did, they were shiver-inducing. I went from journalist to humming twelve year old in a matter of seconds. “The hills are aliiiive”. Oh the memories.
Although Strallen didn’t do it for me on screen, on stage she was endearing. Maybe it’s because theatrical talent runs in the family. The twenty-four year old is actress and theatre star Bonnie Langford’s niece and Scarlet Strallen’s (Mary Poppins) sister. Then again, it could be down to experience; Summer recently starred as Janet Van de Graaff in the Broadway transfer of The Drowsy Chaperone and was nominated for an Olivier Award for her 2006 performance in The Boy Friend at the Open Air Theatre. You also may have seen her in Guys and Dolls, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cats and Scrooge. I’d stick to the stage Strallen – you do it well.
The children bounced off their governess with endearing affection and Summer proved she’s got the look and the innocent streak spot on. The chemistry between Maria and Captain Von Trapp (Simon Burke) needs work but their voices soared as our collective goose bumps stood to attention. The set is magnificent, from the abbey to the glorious Von Trapp mansion, the tunes uplifting and the children absolutely delightful. For fanatics, last night’s blond Liesl was a shock to the system but the sweet little sods charmed our nail polish off.
The musical is darker than the film – which cut the ‘cheese on toast’ in half. A good thing too; after a number of disastrous run-ins with movie re-makes and stage adaptations (Grease was one big unfortunate hen’s party), it was a relief to find a musical with a moral and a dash of history attached. The story was, after all set in Austria during the Third Reich. It mirrored the film when it needed to and threw in some innovation when we least expected it.
The cockle warming rays of Summer haven't hit London just yet, but there was a rousing reception in the theatre. If the standing ovation Miss Strallen and cast received on opening night, was anything to go by, The Sound Of Music will continue to be more ‘hot’ than ‘flop’. You know what - it’s even better than a Hollyoaks omnibus on a hangover.
Related Links:
The Sound of Music tickets and dates.
West End theatre tickets.
Tags
Post a comment
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.seatwaveblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2679
