CONNIE Fisher demonstrated to a full house why she was the perfect How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? choice.
And her mentor, Andrew Lloyd Webber, was in the audience to see his protégée earn a well-deserved standing ovation at the end of a great performance.
Fisher’s nun-turned-governess is well supported by her future family in Michael Praed’s husband-to-be Captain Georg Von Trapp and his seven adorable children. The kids don’t put a foot wrong.
Many of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s numbers – particularly Do-Re-Mi, the eponymous title song, Sixteen Going On Seventeen and Edelweiss – are practically foolproof and were nicely done.
But it is probably Margaret Preece’s rendition of the Mother Abbess’ Climb Ev’ry Mountain that was the finest performance of the night.
It there is a criticism it is that the nasty Nazis who threaten the Von Trapps in the first days of the Anschluss prove not to be nasty at all.
There is little or no tension when the family’s lives are supposedly in danger by the Captain’s refusal to bow to Austria’s new Third Reich masters.
This was amply proved at the curtain call when our dastardly fascist thugs got cheers instead of boos.
The story is of course unashamedly twee, but there was more than enough wit, humour and polish on show. It’s a sure-fire winner.
The Sound of Music runs at the Wales Millennium Centre until August 29.
Iwan Davies
