The hills are alive – in Southampton

A long-standing commitment meant a Saturday night visit to the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton.
The show was about a novice nun who goes to work in the house of a retired Navy man with seven kids. You can guess what happens next, the kids are jumping in and out of bed with her, they do things with goats, the father goes off and the children go wild and are dressed up in curtain material.
Should have been in the News of the World, or a case for Social Services, but you guessed it, the Sound of Music on stage!

It was quite good actually, should have been Connie Fisher in the Maria role. She won the TV programme to find a Maria for the West End show. At the interval Jacqui asked the lady next to me ‘who is playing Maria’ as it obviously was a stand-in? (we were too tight to buy a programme). “It’s not Connie and I’m cross, in fact I’m very cross, I’m going to tell them I’m cross. I only came to see Connie!” - whoops.
I thought it was hilarious, if it was White Hart Lane and Harry making an unpopular substitution I can imagine the reaction “what you bringing that ******* lump of lard on for etc. You don’t know what you’re doing”
Maybe next match I’ll take a leaf out of her book - I’ll say I’m cross, I’m very cross, I only came to see Defoe? - or perhaps not!
Sound of Music film was not popular in Austria when it came out as it did not show Austrians in a very good light. Too many open wounds I suppose. Today it’s a major tourist attraction in Salzburg with Sound of Music tours taking punters to all the venues. You can dress up as a Nun and go running across a mountain pasture. Have not done it myself, don’t want to get into the habit!

Apparently on a visit by the Austrian President to Ronald Reagan’s White House they arranged to play Edelweiss thinking it was the Austrian National Anthem. Unfortunately they didn’t realise it was a Rogers & Hammerstein tune from an unpopular musical and Edelweiss is the national flower of Switzerland. It must have truly been a night to remember.

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