I watched The Sound of Music musical yesterday night. It was a great musical. Those who have watched the movie by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer would also love this musical. The music u hear on my blog is from the movie by Julie Andrews herself. I paid for the second cheapest ticket at $68 and the seats was Circle 3 all the way back right to the top but it was centre seats. I could not see the cast faces clearly as it was quite a distance. But their performances was really brilliant. Especially the singing vocals of the lead Jennifer Semrick
as Maria and Beth Kirkpatrick as Mother Abbess was great hearing them sing. According to my observation. The Mother Abbess in this musical really sounded like the original voice from the movie itself. Her voice was so powerful and she was the all time favourite of all the audience. When the end credits came, all the cast came out to greet us, the audience cheered upon the appearance of Mother Abbess. Then the cheer continued when the seven children and Maria came along. I guess Singapore is the only country that had such a response from the audience really enjoyed and liked their parts. As for the role of Captain Von Trap played by Jim Ballard, I can only say he also has a great tenor voice. Much better than Christopher Plummer I would say. Perhaps afterall the latter may be just an actor but he's good looking and charming at that age when he was acting in the movie. As for Jim Ballard, he's has moustache and not as good looking as Christopher Plummer but his vocals is powerful.

Besides the normal songs you heard on the movie itself, there were two songs which were cut from the movie itself but was originally shown at the first musical in 1959 was restored in this musical, How Can Love Survive and No Way To Stop It performed by Stewart Brown as Max Dtweiler (Captain's friend) and Friesia Schuil as Elsa (Captain's lover).
This is Max Dtweiler and Elsa...

Just to let some people know here that Elderweiss is the national flower of Austria and the place that the Von Trap family lives in is in Sanzburg. Captain Von Trap chose to sang Elderweiss in the Austrian Music Festival in the show as The Von Trap Family Singers is because he loves Austria and as Austria is going to be invaded by the Nazis at that time, he sang that song to show Austrians that Austria is their homeland and the music festival was organised by the Austrians.
There is an official website about the musical at: http://www.thesoundofmusic.biz/ To download some songs and read more about the musical, u can visit the website.

There are a few scenes and dialogues that are different from the movie. Some dialogues are much funnier too. The first scene was where My Favourite Things was sung before Maria met the children by Maria and Mother Abbess in the Abby before Mother Abbess asked Maria to be the governess of the Von Trap family. The dialogues brought in before the song was that Mother Abbess heard Maria singing this song the other day when they used to sang when they were a child. This song in the original scene in the show was supposed to be when the children and Maria were in her bedroom afraid of the thunder. The second scene different was that Do Re Mi was sung when Maria was left with the children alone in the house just after Captain Von Trap stepped out after the introduction of children to Maria. So they sang Do Re Mi in the house with the same dialogues as in the movie.


This song in the movie was filmed on a grassland when the children was brought out for walk by Maria to town. The next difference is the bedroom scene, the song My Favourite Things initially found in the movie was replaced by The Lovely Goathered in the musical. This song was supposed to be played in the puppet performance in the movie. The next scene was shown in the ball night where Captain Von Trap was dancing with Maria.
The dialogues which Maria shoudl be in the bedroom changing clothes for the dinner and Elsa was supposed to tell Maria that Captain is in love with her was replaced by Brigitta in the musical. As this is a stage performance, the backdrop and scenes shown is very limited as compared to the movie. But the artist for the backdrop is brilliant. The scene after the puppet show where Captain was supposed to play the guitar and sing Elderweiss was taken out in the musical. But he performed the song , Elderweiss and The Sound of Music in the scene where Maria left the family and Captain sat down and played the guitar with his children.
All of the cast like Liesl, Maria did played the guitar a bit as the scenes needed but Captain Von Trap realli played it at the festival.
This scene was when the children were singing My Favourite Things to make them feel better and at this time Maria came back from the Abby to face her feelings for Captain after the talk with Mother Abbess.
. Overall I would give this musical a 5 stars out of 5 stars. This is really worth to watch it just for once. This is my first time watching a musical performance. At every song performed finished, we must clap. This is something new that I did not knew about. I just followed the audience. The interior of Esplanade Theatre designed like London's Royal Albert Hall. It's huge and its ceilings at least four to five storeys high.Not forgetting the musicians provided by SSO (Singapore Symphony Orchestra). Now I realli regret not getting the CD sold yesterday. I dunno how much it cost but it's like worth the money getting it at least for remembrance. I kept the ticket of course. Well, now tickets are really sold out, so even after reading my reviews u want to watch this musical may be too late to get tickets already. Unless the response is good enough to have an encore extended performance again. Then I would suggest u pay more for the better seats. At least get the balcony seats at the side or Circle 2 would be good enough.

Here's the main story for some who still dunno what Sound of Music is about...

The World’s Best Loved Musical

Winner of 6 Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 1959, The Sound of Music is the inspiring true story of Maria Rainer. Set in Salzberg, in pre-World War II Austria, Maria serves as a governess for the seven children of the widowed Captain von Trapp. Her growing rapport with the von Trapp children, coupled with her generosity and spirit, gradually captures the heart of the stern Captain von Trapp. Upon returning from their honeymoon they discover that the Nazis have invaded Austria and have demanded the Captain’s immediate service in their navy. This sets off a rollicking adventure towards the mountains of Switzerland, and freedom.The original production of The Sound of Music opened at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959 and ran for 1,443 performances. The success of the Broadway musical inspired the movie adaptation of the same name, which scooped the 1965 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and stands as the most successful movie musical of all time.The stage production includes the timeless Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, “My Favourite Things”, “Do-Re-Mi”, Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, “Edelweiss” and “Something Good”. The distinguished careers of Richard Rodgers (composer) and Oscar Hammerstein (librettist/lyricist) joined forces in 1943 to create the most successful partnership in American musical theatre history. Among their credits were nine Broadway musicals, including Oklahoma!, South Pacific and The King and I. Collectively, their musicals have earned 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award.

Here's the lyric to the song you hear now: The Sound of Music by Julie Andrews

The hills are alive
With the sound of music
With songs they have sung
For a thousand years
The hills fill my heart
With the sound of music
My heart wants to sing ev'ry song it hears
My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds
That rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to prey
I go to the hills
When my heart is lonely
I know I will hear
What I've heard before
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music
And I'll sing once more

Labels: Hot Stuff, lyrics, musical, reviews, synopsis

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