'The Sound Of Music' National Tour 2009/10

The London Palladium production of 'The Sound Of Music' starts its national tour in July 2009 and continues for 18 months.

WMC, Cardiff.- 26th July -29th Aug.
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford.- 2nd Sep -26th Sep.
Mayflower, Southampton.- 29th Sep -24th Oct.
Empire Theatre, Sunderland. -17th Nov-Dec 5th.
Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham are all awaiting confirmation.

The tour stars Connie Fisher (sometimes!)

I saw this on Wednesday and thought still very good, best Hammerstein and Rodgers, going to get to know there music more this year, so look forward to seeing Carousel and South Pacific in New York and possible King and I.

Then going to get familiar with Sondheim.

This tour is not sitting down for very long in its current planned venues? I suspect when this gets to the bigger cities they will get longer.

See Southampton is on there so CONaires be happy.

TSOM made its money back and I guess made a handsome profit for the 2 1/2 years it played.

To touring productions actually make much money? thinking production costs will be higher and theatres smaller. Also if a tour is doing great in a certain city it does not have the scope to extend, as the next planned city has to be made.

Tours very, very rarely extend these days as most theatres are always booked up to weekly capacity months/years in advance.

Im so excited that this is playing Manchester for 4 weeks over Christmas *rolls eyes*

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It's great to hear that Margaret Preece is going out on tour. I thought she was the best part of the show when in was in town :)

I booked for a Saturday evening performance in Bradford several weeks ago and I was struggling to get three seats together then.

This is certainly the biggest production of 'The Sound Of Music' to ever tour the UK. There have been maybe 2 or 3 tours that have gone around for a few months but this out does them all.
The public will flock to this.
The last time some of these cities had 'The Sound Of Music' it was the original 1960s movie road show that played in the biggest cinemas each city had seating between 2000 and 3500.
The movie played this cinemas for up to 1 year at a time.
The old Capitol cinema in Cardiff ( the first stop on this tour by coincidence) played the movie for 2 and half years. This was the case in most UK cities for many years.
So to have the stage show in town in such a big production is something very special.

Updated On: 4/11/09 at 04:30 PM

I saw a tour with Liz Robertson and Christopher Cazenove some years ago (again at Bradford). It was OK but I felt sorry for Liz having to run out onto a lump of green plastic whilst Julie Andrews got the Alps.

100% Official Michael Praed will be playing Captain Von Trapp.

Glad to hear its selling well in Sunderland!

I caught this last Saturday evening in Bradford. The theatre was absolutely packed out and there were people queueing for returns. Connie was on, which was a relief, as I took two of my aunts who had supported her during Any Maria Will Do.

So?

Well, she was fine but not exceptional. She sounded a lot like Julie Andrews and you warmed to her as she grew in her relationship with Liesl. Apparently this interpretation is supposed to make Maria more of a tomboy - I didn't notice much difference apart from a few goofy gestures. There wasn't much chemistry between her and Captain Von Trapp, but I blame this on Robin of Sherwood who was as wooden in the role as the forest he came out of.

The sets were effective, the lighting was good (if I noticed it, it must have been) and the sound system was exceptional - every word audible right from start - very different from other recent experiences at the Bradford Alhambra.

The stage version plods compared to the film and I suspect Jeremy Sams' direction didn't help; is it me or is this guy over-rated? The highlight of the stage version for me is How Can Love Survive, a superb song cut from the film but it just seemed to be there: listen to Honor Blackman on the 1981 London recording for a great interpretation.

Would I rather have seen Emma Williams in the role? Well - I'd like to see her take on the role and I'm sure she could do wonders with it, but not in this production: she'd have been wasting her talents.

What is it about Captain von Trapp that seems to make it such a difficult role to cast? Nearly everyone I've seen play it has been wooden or just plain bad.

Updated On: 9/22/09 at 02:59 PM

on the 1981 cast recoding is michael jayston as in the valeyard in doctor who's the trial of the timeload and nicolas II in Nicholas and Alexandra playing Captin Von Trapp ?

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