The Sound of Music

Connie Fisher in The Sound of Music

“Never start by looking for the people you end up getting,” is impresario Max Detweiler’s motto for casting the entertainment for the Salzburg Folk Festival when he stumbles upon the idea of turning Captain von Trapp’s seven-strong brood into a singing troupe in The Sound of Music. The spectacular new production of the immortal musical that has opened at the London Palladium has adopted an even more novel casting approach for the lead role of Maria, the novice-nun-turned-children’s governess, than Detweiler’s. The producers fielded 10 contestants for an eight-week reality TV contest, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, with the public ultimately deciding who would play the role.

Let’s answer the question on everyone’s mind: Does Connie Fisher, who has duly been dubbed “the people’s Maria,” live up to the tale of luck, pluck and determination that brought her here? After all the hype (and hopes) of the programme that has turned hers into the most anticipated West End debut in recent history, it’s a relief to report that she brings a freshness, vitality and immediacy to a show that has long been known as stale from over-familiarity. But more than that, she effortlessly transcends the smartly crafted marketing gimmick of the casting process that brought her here to deliver a performance that isn’t just that of a well-meaning amateur promoted to the front ranks but comes from an expertly honed and self-assured professional. She wrenches it away from the memory of Julie Andrews in the celebrated film version to make it entirely her own. Fisher possesses a natural vivacity, a strong and secure vocal prowess and an effortless way with the children that she is put in charge of that earns her their affection and attention. There may be a touch too little vulnerability, but that’s the price paid for the unforced, radiant confidence she brings to it instead.

Connie Fisher and the children of The Sound of Music

If Fisher is the driver of Jeremy Sams’ handsomely traditional staging, the Rolls Royce of a production that she is steering purrs with a glowing contentment throughout. To find Lesley Garrett (one of Britain’s most popular operatic sopranos), for instance as the Mother Abbess is luxury casting indeed; and even if acting is not her strongest suit, she not only climbs ev’ry mountain but effortlessly reaches every note as she does so. It’s just one mark of the musical and theatrical class of a production that also fields the wonderful Lauren Ward as Baroness Schraeder, Captain von Trapp’s suitor, and the fine Ian Gelder as her friend Max Detweiler.

Just 10 days before opening night, the production dispensed with its original von Trapp; and though Alexander Hanson, parachuted in to take over, maintains an air of grave stiffness and formality for too long, he is sure to melt in time as his own confidence and rapport with Fisher’s Maria grows.