Chichester has set quite a record for staging West End-quality musicals in recent times. This immaculate production is no exception. Director Adam Penford does not aim for any reinvention of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s final musical collaboration but creates a polished gem that glories in its faithfulness.
Premiering on Broadway in 1959, the Nazi-era drama of Maria, a novitiate nun-turned-governess (Gina Beck) to the von Trapp family, is still a syrupy love story and relentlessly smiley narrative about overcoming adversity. But there is an earnestness to it all here that really does make for feelgood theatre.
