A new production of The Sound of Music is coming this year
Chichester is alive with the Sound of Music 🎶
Last updated 16th Feb 2023
The Chichester Festival Theatre have announced their 2023 season which features a brand-new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music.
Gina Beck - who starred in their production of South Pacific - returns to Chichester to play Maria.
Adam Penford (Artistic Director of the Nottingham Playhouse) directs the production which runs from 10th July to 3rd September 2023.
What's on at the Chichester Festival Theatre:
The Vortex
Directed by Daniel Ragget and set design by Joanna Scotcher The Vortex will be showing from the 28th of April till the 20th of May.
The roaring twenties. A world in flux. The magnetic Florence Lancaster draws people to her like moths to a flame. But when her son Nicky arrives home from Paris with an unexpected fiancée and a secret, it sets off a chain of events which threatens to pull them all into a maelstrom.
4000 Miles
Amy Herzog's award-winning drama staring Eileen Atkins and Sebastian Croft will be showing 4th of May till the 10th of June.
Late one night, 21-year-old Leo arrives without warning at his grandmother's Manhattan apartment – the furthest point on a momentous bike ride across America. Vera is 91 and lives alone. Her independence is undimmed by the challenges of modern living. Baffled by each other at first, this odd couple slowly edge across the distance between them.
Assassins
Stephen Sondheim's murderous musical featuring Amy Booth-Steel, directed by Polly Findlay will be showing between 3rd of June till the 24th.
A surreal carnival. And a group of people who have one thing in common: they want to assassinate the President of the United States. Some succeed, some fail. But there's a prize for them all: a place in the history books.
Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles?
Arienne Kennedy's autobiographical play told in the form of a one-act, monologue directed by Diana Zora will be showing on the 16th June till 8th July.
Playwright Adrienne Kennedy impulsively leaves New York for London with her young son, intent on adapting John Lennon's book In His Own Write for the stage.
The Sound of Music
The Rodgers & Hammerstein hit musical is back and will be featuring Gina Beck, directed by Adam Penford and will be showing between the 10th of July till the 3rd of September.
Austria, 1938. Free-spirited nun Maria is sent away from her abbey to become governess to the widowed Captain von Trapp's seven children. She brings music and laughter back to his unfeeling household, but the future holds more joy and jeopardy than she ever dreamed possible.
Rock Follies
With a book by Chloë Moss and a hit TV show by Andy Mackay Rock Follies will be having its world premiere on the 24 July until the 26th August.
It's the 1970s and feminism is on the rise. Fed up with the male- dominated entertainment industry, Anna, Dee and Q take the future into their own hands and form a rock band – the ironically named 'Little Ladies'. And so begins the musical helter-skelter ride of a lifetime. Can principles and ambition co-exist? And can their friendship survive in the dog-eat-dog world of rock?
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A William Shakespeare classic reimagined by the Chichester Festival Youth Theatre directed by Jon Pashley will be showing on the 4th of August till the 19th of August.
Faced with unwanted marriages and parents who don't listen, four teenage lovers flee the city. But in the forest things are no better: the Fairy King and Queen are at war and a bunch of wannabe actors struggle to get their show off the ground.
Never Have I Ever
An Explosive first play by Deborah Frances-White, directed by Emma Butler including Alexandra Roach and Greg Wise will be showing from the 1st of September till the 30th.
Jacq and Kas's boutique restaurant has gone bust, and telling their oldest friends Adaego and her rich husband Tobin that his investment is toast is only the start of the evening. Cash, class, identity and infidelity are all on the menu. As the last of the expensive wine flows, a dangerous drinking game reveals long-hidden truths and provokes an unspeakable dare.
Quiz
Based on the true story of Charle Ingram directed by Daniel Evans and Seán Linnen staring Rory Bremner, Quiz will be showing from the 22nd of September till the 30th.
A provocative re-examination of the conviction of Charles Ingram, 'the Coughing Major', his wife Diana and accomplices, for duping the world's most popular TV quiz show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, out of £1,000,000
A View from the Bridge
Arthur Miller's compelling drama, directed by Jay Woodcock-Stewart will be showing from the 6th of October till the 28th.
On the Brooklyn waterfront, where the fierce passions of ancestral Sicily linger, the orphaned Catherine falls for her handsome, newly arrived cousin Rodolfo – an illegal immigrant. Their romance is encouraged by her aunt Beatrice but viewed with revulsion by
her uncle, Eddie Carbone, who harbours an unspoken desire. As tensions rise, their story spins inexorably beyond control.
The Inquiry
Directed by Joanna Bowman with its world premier on the 13th of October till the 4th November.
MP Arthur Gill is one of Westminster's rising stars. Still in his 30s, he's just become the Secretary of State for Justice, assuming the role of Lord Chancellor too; and with a leadership race on the horizon, he's a favourite to be the next Prime Minister.
The Jungle Book
The new stage adaptation by Sonali Bhattacharyya, written specially for Chichester Festival Youth Theatre will be showing on the 16th of December till the 31st.
Once upon a time a little boy finds himself lost in the jungle, in hiding from the fearsome tiger Shere Khan. He finds shelter with a wolf pack who name him "Mowgli the Frog" and raise him like one of their own cubs.
Also on the creative team is choreographer Lizzi Gee; the musical supervisor, Gareth Valentine; musical director Matt Samer; original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett; orchestral adaptation by Larry Blank; lighting designer, Johanna Town; sound designer, Paul Groothuis; casting director Natalie Gallacher CDG for Pippa Ailion Casting; and children’s casting director Verity Naughton CDG.
The Sound of Music is one of the most beloved musicals of all time featuring several classics such as 'Climb Ev’ry Mountain', 'My Favorite Things' and Edelweiss to 'Do-Re-Mi' and 'The Sound of Music' itself.
Further casting for the production is to be announced.
Scroll though Rodgers & Hammerstein's incredible musicals
Oklahoma!
The first musical the legendary writing duo worked on was Oklahoma! which was based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. The musical first opened on 31st October 1943 at the St. James Theatre and went on for 2,212 performances which was unprecedented at the time.
Oklahoma! continues to be revived to this day with the most recent UK revival being the 2022 revival at the Young Vic.
Carousel
The second musical that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote was Carousel. The musical was based on the 1909 play Liliom by Ferenc Molnár and told the story of carousel barker Billy Bigelow 's romance with millworker Julie Jordan. Carousel premiered at the Majestic Theatre on 19th April 1945.
Carousel features the song 'You'll Never Walk Alone' which has become a football anthem with Liverpool F.C. fans since the 1960s.
The most recent UK production of Carousel was Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's revival which ran in the summer of 2021. Their version of the show moved the story's setting from the American state of Maine in the 1870s to the UK in the mid-20th century.
South Pacific
Based on James A. Michener Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'Tales of the South Pacific', South Pacific opened at the Majestic Theatre on 7th April 1949.
The most recent revival seen in the UK was the Chichester Festival Theatre's 2021 production which returns in 2022 for a West End run and UK tour.
The King and I
Based on Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King of Siam, The King and I tells the story originally inspired by Anna Leonowens' memoirs of her time as the governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam (now Thailand) in the 1860s.
The musical first opened on Broadway in 1951 at the St James Theatre and first arrived in the West End two years later with a run at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
The musical hit the big screen in 1956 with Deborah Kerr as Anna and Yul Brynner reprised his role as King Mongkut of Siam which he originated on Broadway.
Cinderella
Rodgers and Hammerstein took on the classic fairy tale of Cinderella for a musical that first went to the small screen instead of the stage. Cinderella was originally broadcast live on CBS in the United States in 1957 and starred Julie Andrews in the titular role.
Two more television films were made in 1965 and 1997 with the latter starring Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother.
The musical finally got the Broadway treatment decades later when it ran at The Broadway Theatre in 2013 with an updated book by Douglas Carter Beane. The production is set to get its UK premiere in late 2022 when it runs at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester.
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is one of the most beloved musicals written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Based on Maria Von Trapp's memoirs The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.
The musical opened at the Shubert Theatre with Mary Martin as Maria, the musical opened in London two year later at the Palace Theatre.
The 1965 film adaptation starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer is regarded as one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time.
Oscar Hammerstein II passed away nine months after the musical premiered on Broadway making The Sound of Musical the last musical written by the pair.
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