How do you solve a problem like Maria? In this handsome and wonderfully sung Christmas production at Leicester’s Curve – a venue with a “truly impressive musical pedigree” – Molly Lynch solves it with “sass”, “girlish abandon” and “rockabilly vim”, said Clive Davis in The Times. Some Marias are too demure for their own good; here, though, it’s clear from the off why the Mother Abbess (Joanna Riding) thinks this young novice should spend some time out in the world.
Lynch is superb as Maria, “bringing warmth, charm, and vulnerability to the role with effortless grace”, agreed Amarjeet Singh on What’sOnStage. And hers is just one of several “stunning performances” in Nikolai Foster’s captivating and beautifully designed show – including from David Seadon-Young as Captain von Trapp, who is less of a martinet than usual, and more demonstrably grief-stricken.
You know what you’re getting from “The Sound of Music” (“nuns, Nazis, Do-Re-Mi”) – but this “richly entertaining revival honours its serious intent”, said David Jays in The Guardian. Of course, people love Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical for its “lashings of melody” and “prickle-eyed love story”. The tale, however, is also one of “personal loss, political integrity and the healing power of music”. This production “ripples with feeling, especially in the first half”, which boasts the musical’s biggest songs. And if the second half is busier with plot and reprises, Seadon-Young still “delivers ‘Edelweiss’ with a memorably forlorn defiance”.
I’d have liked more chemistry between the leads, said Holly Williams in The Daily Telegraph. But Lynch is “wonderful with the children, leading sing-alongs and skip-a-thons with a bell-clear, enjoyably old-fashioned-sounding voice and an enthusiasm warm enough to melt the most cynical heart”. Michael Taylor’s set is a stunning wintery Austria of silver birches and snowy peaks. And the Nazis’ simmering presence, which “creeps in around all the edges” of Foster’s production in a range of deft, well-thought-out touches, brings a usefully dark undertone to a show that can risk seeming twee. In sum: “festive bliss”.
Curve Theatre, Leicester. Until 17 January
Nikolai Foster’s captivating and beautifully designed revival ‘ripples with feeling’
