Rockdale Town Hall Comes Alive With The Sound of Music

After a lengthy closure for renovation, the Rockdale Town Hall welcomes musical theatre back in February 2014, with a Broadway classic.

Rockdale Musical Society will present Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music this February/March. President Greg Jones said, "we are incredibly proud and excited that the very first musical theatre production in the beautifully refurbished new RockdaleTown Hall will be one of the most well-loved musicals of all time. Add to that, we are celebrating our 75th anniversary this year which makes it extra special!"

Rodgers and Hammerstein's final collaboration, based on the true story of the Family von Trapp singers, The Sound of Music features an evergreeen score including "Climb Every Mountain", "Do Re Mi", and "My Favorite Things".

The company promises that the Rockdale Town Hall stage will transport audiences to the hills of Austria and into the home of the von Trapp family with costumes by Fran Appleyard and set design by Tyler Hoggard.

Director Cathy Boyle said, "Audiences can't help but love this classic story of Maria and the von Trapp family."

The Sound of Music features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay. The original Broadway production opened on November 16, 1959 and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The film version starred Julie Andrews in one of her most memorable roles and garnered five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

RMS's production features Melissa Stewart as Maria, Stephen Halsted as Captain von Trapp, and Kerrie Hartin, who will be donning the habit once more to play The Mother Abbess after previously playing her for Engadine Musical Society.

"We were overwhelmed with the amount of children who auditioned for the Von Trapp Family, it did mean that we have ended up with an incredibly talented double cast of child 'triple threats' who are going to know the socks off our audiences" said Cathy. "Having said that, for some reason we didnt have any Friedrichs audition, so we engaged our local paper "The Leader" help us with a "searching for Friedrich" story which not only resulted in finding our perfect boys for the role, it also created some great local hype which led to a spike in ticket sales".

Rockdale Musical Society are thrilled to be back home at the Town Hall and can't wait to see their audiences reaction to the updated venue, which includes very comfortable raked seating and a brand new bar area for a champers at interval.

The Sound of Music