By Cameron Woodhead
MUSICAL
THE SOUND OF MUSIC ★★★★
Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse
Presented by The Really Useful Group & Others, Regent Theatre, from May 19
The Sound of Music is not, I confess, one of my favourite things, but this charming and atmospheric production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most famous musical is enough to win over even the cynics among us.
Amy Lehpamer (Maria) with Stefanie Jones (Liesl) behind her in The Sound of Music.Credit: Simon Schluter
Its biggest drawcard is Amy Lehpamer as Maria. Musical theatre stars don't get much more versatile. She has vamped around to '80s hair metal in Rock of Ages, cooked up a more wholesome sort of storm in Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert, and now channels the squeaky clean governess to perfection.
If Lehpamer invokes shades of Julie Andrews' immortal performance, with her bright vocals and diction crisp as mountain air, she also strikes up an effortless rapport with almost every member of the cast, from My Favourite Things sung in duet, with a whiff of mischief and private delight, opposite Jacqueline Dark's Mother Abbess, to the gradual disarming of the seven von Trapp children through song.
The cast of the Melbourne production of The Sound of Music.Credit: Simon Schluter
Leading men in Australian musicals are, alas, a much thornier problem to solve than Maria. Captain von Trapp has always been a role for an actor who can hold a tune. Cameron Daddo can, just, and he's handsome, yet you can't help feeling he's too light-on to carry the strict authority and frozen grief Maria's free spirit is supposed to melt.
His serviceable performance doesn't matter too much – not in the face of Jeremy Sams' lavish production, which moves from cloister to alpine mansion to mountain vistas in full technicolour, unfurling into a more sinister vision as the Anschluss descends, and stormtroopers and swastika banners blitzkrieg the stage.
Music matches spectacle, with Robert Russell Bennett's lush arrangements (for an impressive live orchestra) providing highlights, especially the glorious chorus of nuns, bookending the show with religious song.
And there's a lively supporting cast: Marina Prior as a likeable but worldly Baroness Schraeder, David James as dubious impresario Max Detweiler, Lorraine Bayly as crusty housekeeper Frau Schmidt, and of course the soul of the musical, the children, headed by Stefanie Jones as the eldest, Liesl, and all attractively choreographed, enchantingly sung, distinctively performed.
Top: Jackson Rudge (Friedrich), Stefanie Jones (Liesl). Middle: Joshua Vass (Kurt), Bronte Muir (Louisa), Amy Lehpamer (Maria), Kayla Muir (Marta). Bottom: Chloe Vigilante (Brigitta) and Annie Jones (Gretl).Credit: Simon Schluter
The Sound of Music might be the product of its time, and it's easy to lob a few grenades its way (the repellent sexual politics of Sixteen Going On Seventeen, for a start). Yet the melodies remain irresistible, and this winning production delivers an entertainment that should captivate everyone from post-millennial children to busloads of the young at heart.