Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC at ARTS Theatre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Thursday 25th September 2025.

The hills are alive with the sound of music and the Arts Theatre is alive with The Sound of Music, in this most enjoyable production from the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Now, this is not the film. All your old familiar songs are there, but sometimes in a slightly different context. There’s a new duet for two of the supporting cast, and a lot more of the singing nuns.

Emily Fitzpatrick runs onto the stage as Maria Rayner and you flash back to Julie Andrews for a few seconds, until Emily takes over. She is delightful and engaging, her voice sweet, and her smile radiant. Andrew Crispe brings to the role of Captain Georg von Trapp superb singing and a noble posture that melts slowly as Maria and music take control of his heart.

The von Trapp children, two separate casts, one the Rogers cast,  the other the Hammerstein, manage to be funny and active without being schmaltzy (go ahead, look it up). The Rogers cast were there on the opening night. Teresa van der Hoek is Liesl, the eldest, a fine performance of the young woman who is sixteen going on seventeen. Matthew Boyd as Rolf partners her well, after all, he is seventeen going on eighteen. The unfamiliar duet, How Can Love Survive, pairs Megan Doherty as the wealthy Elsa Schraeder, and Nicholas Bishop as the not so wealthy Max Detweiler, musing cynically on the fact that true love must needs be in a garret between starving young people, down to their last pfennig.

The nuns of the Abbey at Nonnberg, which I’m certain translates as the nun mountain, have several prominent chorales in this score and, when Susie o’Connell, the compassionate Abbess, encourages Maria to return to her life with the von Trapp family, she does so with a performance of Climb Every Mountain of such warmth and power, such a distinctive contralto, that the audience is, for a moment, silent before their rapturous applause at the first act curtain. Word from the company says the role will be performed by Chany Hoffman, herself an exceptionally fine singer.

The von Trapp ménage is maintained by Anne Doherty, as Frau Schmidt  along with Lindsay Dunn, as Franz, the butler. They are excellently performed and if you look at the guests at the castle, there’s a brief appearance by Richard Trevaskis, an honorary life member of the society.

Liam Phillips brings a lightness of touch to his huge orchestra of 35 musicians, the perfect incarnation of so many of our favourite songs. Vanessa Redmond’s choreography deftly catches the spirit of the time.

The musical doesn’t shy away from the increasing Nazi threat to Austrian society, as shown by the Anschluss, and, when the family’s escape is thwarted, Maria knows that the hills she has always run to are so much a part of her life she can navigate by night and lead her family to safety.

Director, Adam Goodburn, has a designed a spacious environment for his well chosen cast that changes smoothly throughout, making excellent use of the Arts Theatre’s projection facilities, and that vision of the hills seems to overlay the action. Brian Budgen’s evocative set painting is another stylish addition to the production.

Photography, Pro Shots.