from Julian Ovenden in the live transmission of The Sound of Music on ITV this evening.
Not my cup of tea (I've never seen the whole thing from end to end, either in stage form - the version used tonight - or the rearranged movie version... and I haven't seen all tonight's either) but due to an Am Dram / Musical fan Aunt, I watched a lot of it.
Ovenden (oft seen at the John Wilson Proms etc - also Foyle's son in 'Foyle's War') seems to me to be exceptional. Alexander Armstrong was pretty good too (ex Trinity College, Cambridge choral scholar, so he should be - although his career's too diverse I think, it's impossible to suspend disbelief and take him seriously). All sang far better than I'd believed possible, in fact, from the lead, ex-Eastenders' actress Kara Tointon, all the way down to the smaller parts.
I suppose the main thing was that they didn't have to sing out - some songs were clearly done very intimately, and to my ears, benefited hugely. I do have a problem with sections of the piece as a whole, I find some of the songs toe-curlingly awful - but the best were done as well as I can imagine is possible tonight.
The whole thing was a technical triumph, actually, too - 2 live, complex hours of faultless camerawork and sound, as well as performance (bar one von Trapp child who fell headfirst out of shot during one of the dances.). Glad we watched a recorded version, with a 30 m delay, so the exasperating advert breaks could be eliminated.
Not my cup of tea (I've never seen the whole thing from end to end, either in stage form - the version used tonight - or the rearranged movie version... and I haven't seen all tonight's either) but due to an Am Dram / Musical fan Aunt, I watched a lot of it.
Ovenden (oft seen at the John Wilson Proms etc - also Foyle's son in 'Foyle's War') seems to me to be exceptional. Alexander Armstrong was pretty good too (ex Trinity College, Cambridge choral scholar, so he should be - although his career's too diverse I think, it's impossible to suspend disbelief and take him seriously). All sang far better than I'd believed possible, in fact, from the lead, ex-Eastenders' actress Kara Tointon, all the way down to the smaller parts.
I suppose the main thing was that they didn't have to sing out - some songs were clearly done very intimately, and to my ears, benefited hugely. I do have a problem with sections of the piece as a whole, I find some of the songs toe-curlingly awful - but the best were done as well as I can imagine is possible tonight.
The whole thing was a technical triumph, actually, too - 2 live, complex hours of faultless camerawork and sound, as well as performance (bar one von Trapp child who fell headfirst out of shot during one of the dances.). Glad we watched a recorded version, with a 30 m delay, so the exasperating advert breaks could be eliminated.
I'm afraid the qualities of musical theatre pass me by utterly. They were all the rage in my circle when I was in my late teens esp Hollywood, but now saccherine and sentimental is how it all seems. Except Carmen Jones.
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