The Sound Of Music, Sunderland Empire (From The Northern Echo)

The Sound Of Music, Sunderland Empire

12:11pm Tuesday 24th November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

DESPITE the pillars of the abbey wobbling more than a nervous novice’s wimple, this charming version of one of the world’s most popular shows ensures that capacity audiences are climbing every musical mountain.

Close your eyes tight and the performance of Connie Fisher, the remarkable survivor from TV’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, sounds eerily like that of all-time favourite Julie Andrews.

Fisher is certainly enjoying a welcome return to the role which first gave her stardom after coming through tricky throat surgery earlier this year.

The pressure is even greater for ex-Robin Hood Michael Praed, who is quite at home as the snappy Captain von Trapp, but less confident when having to deliver the singing side of that rare breed, a heroic Austrian seadog. Fortunately, there are arias a-plenty from the likes of the excellent Maggie Preece as Mother Abbess, plus seven confident child performers led by Claire Fishenden, as Liesl. The remainder are: Max Gordon (Freidrich), Ella Williams (Louisa), Iwan Davis (Kurt), Ellie Coldicutt (Brigitta), Ruby Bridle (Marta) and Jade Gill Martinez (the tiny delight that is Gretl).

The shapely Jacinta Mulcahy, as Baroness Schraeder, and Martin Callaghan, as the weak-willed music festival boss Max, are a nicely-judged distraction as the Alpine idyll slowly succumbs to the neighbouring Nazis.

Apart from Favourite Things being given to Preece and Fisher as a duet, thus, leaving The Lonely Goatherd as the calming song when the children are frightened by the thunderstorm, this is the one show that it’s worth catching before we go wall-to-wall panto.

■ Until December 5. Tickets: £15-£39.50. Box Office: 0844-847-2499. SunderlandEmpire.org.uk

• Print
• Email
• Share