All photos by Chantelle D’mello
Iconic Broadway musical The Sound of Music, based on the memoir of a real-life Maria von Trapp, opened last night at the Qatar National Convention Center.
Set in Salzburg, Austria, the 150-minute show, which first premiered in 1959, six years before the Academy Award-winning film featuring Julie Andrews opened in theaters, was the last musical created by acclaimed duo Rodgers and Hammerstein.
It follows the life of Maria Rainer, played by Lucy Hunter-James, a young nun-in-training who is sent by her abbey to the Von Trapp house where she serves as the family’s governess.
Having spent years in the care of nannies after losing their mother, the seven Von Trapp children, ages four to 16 years old, at first plot to chase Rainer from their house, but find themselves falling in love with her grace and charm.
Over the course of the movie, their strict father also falls for Rainer, but Hitler’s Abschluss, the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, threatens to pull their family apart.
The rest of the cast features Paul Robinson as Captain Von Trapp, and Sarah Galbraith as Elsa Schraeder, and Anna Lawrence, Isobelle Molloy, Jaydon Vijn, Tooey Morris, Imogen Gurney, Madeline Banbury, and Mia Long as the seven Von Trapp children.
Accompanied by a live orchestra, they perform some of the movie’s most beloved hits, including My Favorite Things, Sixteen Going on Seventeen, Edelweiss, the Sound of Music, and of course, Do-Re-Mi.
Tickets are still on sale for weekend shows and range in price from QR 250 to QR1200/person. They can be bought at Virgin Megastores at the Pearl, in Villaggio and Landmark malls or online here.
There will be a performance at 7pm tonight, and 2pm and 7pm shows on Friday and Saturday. Children under the age of two years old are not allowed at the venue.
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