Honest "Sound Of Music" Review

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooo pretty people!

Has it seriously been like, seven months since I last posted?

Apparently so.

Not going to give you a sob story as to why I've been absent for ages but reasons do include extensive job searching, ill health of family members, other creative projects that have taken priority and of course, the lack of material to write about.

But I'm baaaaaack! (If you've seen the 1995 Australian film, "Napoleon", you'll understand which voice I had in mind. Yep, it's the flock of lorikeets' voices.)
The black cat still scares the shit out of me, by the way.

Aaaanywhoooo, I'm here to talk about a(nother) musical favourite of mine, "The Sound Of Music".
It was the first musical film I remember seeing when I was about six or seven and it's stuck with me all these years. Julie Andrews is still queen, tbh. My brother told me just because she played a queen is a film and its sequel, doesn't mean she's still queen. Pfft. Men don't understand.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Australian production on its Adelaide leg of the tour a few weeks ago.

First of all, I'm pleased to say, Amy Lehpamer as Maria is gorgeous. One thing I did notice, though, WHY DO THEY TEND TO MAKE WIG AND COSTUME CHANGES TO THE CHARACTER AFTER THE PROMO SHOTS ARE TAKEN? In the shots, her hair is a bob, but in the show, it's more of a pixie crop. (Speaking of which, I noticed they did the same thing with Lisa McCune in "Machu Picchu", where in the promo shots, she was wearing a red wig, but in the show, she had her natural hair.)

Anyway. hair aside, her voice was beautiful. The show started in the abbey and I with the nuns singing traditional hymns as a part of an overture. Then shows Maria up on a hill to begin her famous "Sound of Music", complete with an opening verse I'd never heard before.

Pretty much all of the show was beautiful, though there were many things different between the show and the film that I'm used to:

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

• There were two major lines cut out of the beginning of "I Have Confidence" (which is one of my favourite songs to sing!) 
• Both Franz and Frau Schmidt are given bigger roles and Franz is possibly a Nazi.
• Rolf and Liesl sing "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" on the front porch rather than in the gazebo. In saying that, they only moved to the gazebo when it started raining in the film.
• "My Favourite Things" is sung with Mother Abbess before Maria leaves the abbey as she has briefly been given permission to sing within the abbey and the song sung in the bedroom during the thunderstorm is "The Lonely Goatherd", and the Captain (Georg) does not interrupt them.
• Max and Baroness Schraeder (who is named Elsa in the stage show) have larger parts also and even given a few of their own songs. 
• "Edelweiss" isn't sung until the festival. 
• Some of the parts in "So Long, Farewell" are changed around. And Kurt does hit the high note on the word, 'goodbye' unlike in the film where his part was clearly dubbed by a female voice in both versions (the party and the folk festival)
• It is Brigitta (who is portrayed as even more of a  loud-mouth than in the film) who tells Maria that her father loves her, forcing her to leave, rather than the Baroness being manipulative. 
• In the film, when the children are singing "My Favourite Things" to cheer themselves up as Maria returns from the Abbey, I find Maria's voice overpowering the children's voices and then them running to her insanely satisfying. In the show, she sings with them, though a little more hidden and waits for them to notice her standing there. 
• You actually see the Captain and Elsa break off their engagement after she realises he still loves Maria, with her returning the ring. 
• When Liesl confronts Rolf while they're hiding out in the abbey, in the film, he dobs them in, while in the stage show, he lets them go. Also, in the film, they're hiding in a cemetery, while in the show, they're in a courtyard. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• The choreography, especially in "Do-Re-Mi". I don't know how small children (by that, I mean the girls who play Marta and Gretl) learn choregraphy so well. Hell, I don't even know how they keep an attention span that long. The end of year concerts I used to be involved with, the kids couldn't keep an attention span for like, two minutes, even on stage. Kudos for that level of discipline. 
• The staircase and the chandelier in the foyer. I just really like chandeliers, man. 
• Amy as Maria and the Cameron as the Captain actually playing the guitar, unlike in the film. It's obvious, guys.
• Marina Prior as Elsa having more of a singing role. 
• Max Dettweiller is actually a hilarious role. 
• The gorgeous ballgowns during the party scene (which are used in the curtain call by the ensemble)
• Jacqueline Dark's (who unfortunately left the tour after the Adelaide leg finished two days ago) "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". Holy. Actual. Shitballs. And she knows I loved it:
  
• HARMONIES. HARMONIES GALORE.
• The wedding scene was gorgeous and I love how the Captain was tradional and had his full Austrian Navy uniform. 
• More creepy than a highlight, but the audience being surrounded by Nazi flags and armed guards during the Salzburg Folk Festival scene was great for atmosphere. My mum said she was glared at by a soldier and was a little creeped out but it really made you feel like you were there.
• The ending of the show was extremely satisfying with the family climbing up onto the mountain with the nuns doing a reprise of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". Absolutely beautiful.
• Not so much show related, but I think it's pretty cool they had a replica on the seat used in the foyer in the theatre's own foyer for audience memebers to pose on:

You may have noticed by the by the beginning of the caption that this is the photo Jacqueline Dark commented on :)

Anyway, I'm off. Enough rambling.
Have a wonderful day and stay classy, kids!
Little Ti out
xx