★★★★½ Pitch-perfect revival proves it’s more than just the hills that are alive.

This review was originally published on December 18, 2015 at the production’s premiere season at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre

Capitol Theatre, Sydney
December 18, 2015

Does any show have the heart and soul of The Sound of Music? It may seem hard to believe now, but Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration wasn’t a critical hit when it landed on Broadway in 1959. Many pundits thought it conventional, even corny. The public on the other hand took to it at once and record advances saw it power home to nearly 1500 performances. In the UK it did even better (though the critics still pooh-poohed it), so it’s perhaps fitting that Sydney is now getting the smart-looking and roundly acclaimed 2006 London Palladium production lock, stock and a dozen smoking wimples.

What we have here is the more modest touring version of the Palladium stage show, but the added intimacy of that reduction actually benefits a show which has never been a lavish blockbuster, prefering to place its focus on real people and their problems. In addition, the Rodgers and...