Pitlochry Festival Theatre announces that in 2024 it will be staging, for the first time, an exciting new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved musical The Sound of Music.
Directed by Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman, The Sound of Music is set to enchant audiences from 15 November to 22 December 2024.
Inspired by the book The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp, The Sound of Music is set in Austria, 1938, and tells the story of the irrepressible Maria as she begins to doubt her vocation, leaving her convent to become governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp, a widower and retired naval officer. She soon turns the Captain’s orderly life upside down and instils a love of music in his, as well as in each of his children’s hearts. But as the forces of Nazism take hold of Austria, Maria and the entire von Trapp family must make a difficult decision that will change their lives forever.
Featuring a treasure trove of cherished songs, including Climb Ev’ry Mountain, The Sound of Music, My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi, and Sixteen Going on Seventeen, The Sound of Music won the hearts of audiences worldwide, earning five Tony Awards and five Oscars in the much-loved 1965 film version featuring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
Director and Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre Elizabeth Newman said: “I have wanted to direct Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music for a very long time. It was a family favourite growing up; we’d sit down every Christmas to watch it together. Even now my sister and I will sing the songs to each other!
I was thrilled to finally secure the rights to produce a new production in Pitlochry next year. It’s such a powerful story – incredibly moving and inspiring – it celebrates love, childhood, and family, whilst simultaneously exploring how people survive in a world where dictatorships and political turmoil threaten their liberty. Now feels like exactly the right moment to tell this story and to bring our very own hills alive with the sound of music. And I cannot wait to begin the search for the Von Trapp children as well as Maria and the rest of the Ensemble.”
Casting and the creative team for The Sound of Music will be announced in 2024.
Besides the thrilling news about The Sound of Music, next year will also see an exciting lineup of productions at Pitlochry Festival Theatre for all the family. As previously announced, from May to October the Theatre will be hosting a feast of not to be missed productions, including the musicals Footloose and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, the world première of Frances Poet’s beautiful new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and the return of the Theatre’s award-winning production of Shirley Valentine. The season will also include the première of two exciting new plays, Firebrand Theatre Company’s Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed and Harry Mould’s debut play The Brenda Line.
The Theatre will also see, in its outside performance space, the return of Elizabeth Newman’s sold-out adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic tale The Secret Garden and a new Gaelic and Scots Language version of Purcell’s baroque masterpiece tale of doomed love, Dido and Aeneas.
The Sound of Music runs at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 15 November to 22 December 2024.
Tickets for The Sound of Music and the 2024 season go on sale to Pitlochry Festival Theatre priority members from Monday 30 October and on general sale from Monday 13 November. For further information contact the box office on 01796 484626 or online at www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
