Jackie
Posts: 1496
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Before the Bomb
|
Just got back from The Sound of Music - overall, very good production. The sets were amazing - they moved up, down, sideways, round. I was very impressed and it just looked fantastic. When the show opens Maria is "lying" on the hill, which is actually vertical and then slowly lowers to horizontal throughout the first song. It looked fantastic. The sets all slide in, with different elaborate sets for the abbey, the Von Trapp home, the performance stage (they put down a big red curtain and then swastika banners start unravelling all around the audience, very clever), the garden (trees float in from above!), the hills and Maria's bedroom in the Von Trapp home.
The Mother Abbess (played by Margaret Preece) was amazing - beautiful operatic voice, literally sent shivers down my spine. I met her afterwards and got her autograph on my program (I know, I'm a total loser!) and she was so lovely. When I complimented her on the show and her singing (I told her she was fantastic and totally blew me away), she laughed and said that she was glad I thought so, but she was actually on antibiotics! Connie Fisher was slightly disappointing, in that even though she sounded and looked great, she has a tendency to be a little OTT and over-act. Because of the fact that she's practically in all the songs and has done nearly all the shows, her voice sounded a bit tired in her upper-range, but during the reprise of '16 Going On 17' she hit some lovely clear high notes. Some very funny bits too, which I think she did very well. When I met her afterwards the poor thing had been crying, because apparently she'd had some bad news...? No idea what, but she was still absolutely lovely and signed my program. Very, very pretty and she took photos with people. I was saying to my friend who came to see it with me that I can imagine that Connie will probably move on to something like Chicago once she's finished The Sound of Music, because it's the kind of show that likes high-profile actresses, but it might be kind of tricky for her to move away from the Maria image. Of course what I also said is that when I was watching the show tonight I kept thinking 'there's Connie' rather than 'there's Maria', while with Wicked I was watching Elphaba, not Idina Menzel, which is a bit of a shame, because now that she's so high-profile she's become a personality and so you can never really get into her performance.
The only other person whose autograph I got was Alexander Hanson's (Captain George Von Trapp) and he was lovely too! Very friendly cast in general, all very willing to have a chat, have photos, etc. The children were fantastic, all wonderful voices (the kid playing Kurt, my GOD what a voice! He hit this high note that just sent shivers), except for Sophie Bould (Liesl). Even though her singing voice was very good she was annoying the hell out of me, she and Neil McDermott (Rolf Gruber). They were so bloody irritating! She's older than 16 (in 20s, probably), so she decided to put on this really irritating high-pitched voice to be younger, but ended up seeming about 13. She was so annoying. And Rolf as well - some serious over-acting going on there. The problem is that there's a big difference between a high energy performance and a very loud and over the top performance. They, unfortunately, were the latter.
The costumes were all very beautiful and some of the quickest costume changes ever. Some of the choreography was fab, some was extremely naff and cheesy. All of the numbers with the nuns were beautiful, and the final scene had some of the most gorgeous use of lighting and staging that I've ever seen in a musical. Overall, thoroughly enjoyable, but the show was completely stolen by Margaret Preece and she definitely made it worth seeing.
Jackie.
_____________________________
http://dwightsheep.pocketses.net
1. Epic Movie ***
2. Date Movie **
3. Music & Lyrics ***
4. Strings ****
5. Grave of the Fireflies *****
|
Printable Version
RE: The Theatre Thread - 
!
But everyone haas their opinions, most ppl I know who've seen it really enjoyed it!
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread