‘The Surrey Hills are alive’ as Cranleigh School Brings Back The Sound of Music to the London Stage

Since 2006 the tradition of bi-annual Cranleigh School musicals has included Les Miserables, Into the Woods and West Side Story and it is into that series of shows that the latest, The Sound of Music fits. All comparisons end at this point, though, because of the sheer scale and aspiration of this year’s production.

For the first time, in a significant statement of intent about Cranleigh’s performing arts credentials and ambition, the production, in addition to a run of shows at school, went up to London, for one memorable, magical night at the New Wimbledon Theatre.

Sam Price, Head at Cranleigh School, said: “This is a milestone that builds on our long heritage of musical and dramatic excellence. Our school has always been a place where ability is nurtured, producing many individuals who have gone onto distinguished professional careers in the performing arts.”

Director, Emily McGhee, said: “We began nearly a year ago with the decision to take our next musical to a professional theatre. This coincided with the idea to put on our first whole-school production, including Prep pupils. The atmosphere shifted. It was no longer just a school play, it was a professional mission.”

Remarkably, there are two Cranleigh connections to The Sound of Music. The opening shots of the 1965 film, where Maria twirls on top of the Austrian alps was in fact filmed by an Old Cranleighan who captured the images from a helicopter. Julie Andrews was said to have been knocked over repeatedly by the downdraft so she had to dig her heels into the mud just to stay upright.

Mel Drayton, an actress who lives in Cranleigh today was the original Gretl (the youngest of the von Trapp children) in the 1961 West End production of the show. Interviewed for the Cranleigh School programme, Mel remembers how she got the part: “I went in a taxi to the Palace Theatre with my dad and there were hundreds of kids trying out for the part. They asked me to sing God Save the Queen but I forgot the words, so I sang Baa, Baa Black Sheep instead. We left, and the company manager came running after us across the street and offered me the part of Gretl there and then.”

There can’t be too many musicals as familiar as The Sound of Music. In the 1960s, the Broadway and West End productions swept all before them. For a time, the 1965 cinema version was the highest grossing Hollywood film ever. The smart touch of restoring My Favourite Things to its original place near the beginning of the show demonstrated a classy nod to the musical’s heritage. Instead, Maria’s rendition of The Lonely Goatherd is used to distract the von Trapp children from the storm. The seven pupils who make up the family are perfectly cast and their chemistry with Maria and their father is sincere and touching.

In her programme notes, Emily McGhee remarks that she sought to “look beyond the ‘chocolate box’ nostalgia” of the show in favour of the “journey of finding one’s voice and standing by one’s principles even when the cost is high.” For a modern audience, this works well. And of course it helps that you’ve got some of Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s finest compositions to help you on that journey. The Sound of Music is, and always will be, a classic story of the triumph of love over adversity. This daring production shows the power of what can be achieved when young people are trusted with huge responsibilities and how well they shine when the spotlight finds them. In the end, it was a shame to have to say So Long, Farewell to them all.