My Favourite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert review: Something wonderful indeed

Film cameras dotted around the Theatre Royal Drury Lane during the My Favourite Things tribute to Rodgers & Hammerstein confirmed the show will be getting an afterlife with a cinema broadcast next year. Quite right too. Performed across a matinee and an evening performance while the Frozen cast was keeping warm at home, it was a star-studded celebration of the titans of musical theatre that deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

Headliner Michael Ball raised the roof with a rousing ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ and that’s exactly what it was. Well, an enchanted evening and an afternoon in what is surely London’s most beautiful theatre, with a cast you’d never get in a long run.

Joining Ball were homegrown talents Julian Ovenden, Maria Friedman, and Lucy St. Louis. America-born Marisha Wallace, who has carved out a very successful career over here, joined them along with other US luminaries like Audra McDonald, Patrick Wilson, and Aaron Tveit.

Talk about a line-up to die for! And the cream on the crop was a surprise appearance by EGOT winner and all-round legend Rita Moreno, who got the biggest ovation. She didn’t sing (she is 92 now) but had some hilarious reminiscences about appearing in R&H’s The King and I and, lustily introducing one of the fellas, quipped: “I’m a dirty old lady. I should be English.” It was left to Joanna Ampil to sing that show’s ‘Something Wonderful’, which summed up the concert nicely.

Rodgers and Hammerstein were groundbreakers who, as Wilson pointed out during a suite of songs from Oklahoma!, helped develop the so-called book musical where the music is integral to the story. They also, as Friedman noted, confronted racism head-on in South Pacific even when threatened with being shuttered for indecency if they didn’t cut the ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’ number.

That song was one of many magnificent melodies amongst an embarrassment of riches performed concert-style in front of a lush 40-piece orchestra. There were a couple of ensemble routines, including a rather camp ‘There Is Nothing Like a Dame’ and ‘Kansas City’ done as a fantastic tap-dance routine. Mostly, though, it was all these peerless singers centre stage, saluting what must be musical theatre’s most accomplished canon of compositions, where Hammerstein’s lyrics are every bit as masterful as Rodgers’ music.

I’d be here all day if I had to detail the show’s many glorious highs. But, to single out a few of them, Wallace dug deep into the comedy of ‘I Cain’t Say No’, Ball brought the house down with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, McDonald’s ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ was simply stunning and the whole cast joining together for ‘Edelweiss’ brought a tear to every eye.

Talking of favourite things, the Sound of Music soundtrack has been given a spiffing spruce-up with a deluxe edition CD reissue. It features all the beloved songs remixed and remastered, plus never-before-released music from the film, with 46 tracks spread across two discs. That’s a lot of music but when it comes to Rodgers and Hammerstein there’s no such thing as too much.

My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert will be screened in more than 400 cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 14 and 18 February. Get tickets here. The Sound of Music deluxe edition is out now on CD.