Sound Of Music Breaks HMT Records With £1m Sales

Until
this week, the highest selling-show at His Majesty’s had been
another musical, Miss Saigon, which sold £950,000’s worth of
tickets in the summer of 2006. The highest-grossing play was last
year’s production of Calendar Girls, which returns to the theatre
this autumn (See News, 25 March 2010).

“The
Sound of Music is one of the biggest shows ever to come to His
Majesty’s and around 40,000 people will see the show during its four
week run,” said Aberdeen Performing Arts chief executive Duncan
Hendry. “We are
absolutely thrilled that it has broken through the £1m ticket sales
record.”

The
Sound of Music opened at His Majesty’s on Wednesday last week,
starring Connie Fisher and Michael Praed as Maria and Captain Von
Trapp. They share the stage with Marilyn Hill Smith as Mother Abbess,
Jacinta Mulcahy as Baroness Schraeder, Martin Callaghan as Max,
Claire Fishenden as Liesl and Jeremy Taylor as Rolf. Kirsty Malpass
plays Maria at certain performances.

This
lavish production tells the story of the Von Trapp family’s flight
across the mountains with its unforgettable score that includes some
of the most memorable songs ever performed on the musical stage
including ‘My Favourite Things’, ‘Do-Re-Mi’, ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’, ‘The
Lonely Goatherd’ and the title song ‘The Sound of Music’.

The Sound of Music has music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar
Hammerstein II, with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse,
suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp.

It
is directed by Jeremy Sams, with choreography by Arlene Phillips,
design by Robert Jones, sound by Mick Potter and lighting by Mark
Henderson. It is produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber (for the Really
Useful Group) and David Ian (for Live Nation).

This
production of the legendary Rodgers and Hammerstein musical opened at
the Wales Millennium Centre in July 2009 following 954 performances
at the London Palladium.

The Sound of Music originally premiered on Broadway in 1959, when it won
six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show first opened in
London in 1961 with a revival in 1981, both productions having
record-breaking runs. The 1965 Hollywood film, which starred Julie Andrews and Christopher
Plummer, won five Oscars, including Best Picture