What to expect from the current OXOPS adaption of the musical The Sound Of Music at Oxford’s New Theatre? Having enjoyed so many incarnations over the years, from memoir to Broadway musical and most famously the Julie Andrew’s led film smash that hooked us all, there were numerous possibilities. MARIA IS BACK: OXOPS brings The Sound Of Music to New Theatre Oxford this January to dispel the New Year blues
get your skates on to catch a slice of this blue skied, Alpine sojourn to slough those winter blues away
But OXOPS plays it fairly close to the famous film’s storyline: set in Austria in the 1930s, a nun (the young, determined and vivacious Maria), is sent to be governess of the seven von Trapp children whose wealthy, widower-father is all on his lonesome. You can guess the rest – it all ends happily ever after. Until it doesn’t – the Nazis invade Austria and some difficult choices have to be made.
Hooray for Emily Booth as Maria, who does young, determined and vivacious very well and has that beautiful cut-glass, Andrews-esque tone to her singing as she and her little protégées romp their way through some of the greatest, most famous and dammit, most earworming songs EVER!
maria and her little protégées romp their way through some of the greatest, most famous and dammit, most earworming songs EVER!
Which means the audience is always invested – you could feel the quiet, excited tension in the auditorium at the beginning of ‘Do-Re-Mi’ and we resisted en masse the urge to skip up and down the aisles to ‘My Favourite Things’. But it’s the whole cast – adults and children alike- who commendably have the vocal chops to carry off these ambitious songs.
Sarah Leatherbarrow as Mother Abbess is something to behold as, alone on stage, she holds us all in the palm of her hand as she vibratos her way through Climb Every Mountain. Does she hit that final high note? Of course she does.
Sarah Leatherbarrow as Mother Abbess is something to behold, holding us all in the palm of her hand as she vibratos her way through Climb Every Mountain
The stage scenery matches the wonderful singing as the story slickly moves from abbeys to hills, mountain-sides and mansions and we are all caught up in the romanticism and vistas.
But that would be to underestimate the script because after the interval the musical takes a darker turn as the Nazi invasion draws ever closer. In fact, there was a collective intake of breath as the swastika banners unfurl from the ceiling and the von Trapp’s idyllic lives are shattered.
there was a collective intake of breath as the swastika banners unfurl from the ceiling and the von Trapp’s idyllic lives are shattered
It was then I appreciated that no, this wasn’t just a quaint storyline to hang some cracking tunes on; it presents us with some powerful, ever-relevant themes of resisting oppression, strength in unity and the struggle to find your vocation. Either way, in OXOPS hands it remains an uplifting one.
But with two performance already sold out, I’d get your skates on to catch a slice of this blue-skied Alpine sojourn to slough those winter blues away.
Edward Bliss
OXOPS The Sound Of Music is at New Theatre Oxford until Sunday Jan 18. Book here https://bit.ly/3KNXoFM
