
Mountainous, soaring and majestic - just some of the words you would use to describe an uplifting melodic journey through the Austrian mountains.
It's just a shame it went by at such a frenetic pace, meaning the grassy picturesque sights were gone before you could say do ray me fa so la te do.
The Empire crowd unfortunately didn't have time to digest "the world's best-loved musical" as the narrative stormed past you like a steam train.
To the shows credit, it ticks all the right boxes apart from one - audience participation.
It is difficult to judge whether the fault lies at the feet of a bunch of languid Liverpudlians or exuberant actors so much in the theatrical zone that they forgot a wide-eyed audience sat awaiting.
The actors, from bursting with energy Connie Fisher aka Maria, who from a distance could be mistook for the great Julie Andrews, right to the more youthful end of the spectrum with the enormously enchanting five-year-old Claudia Hall (Gretl) are quite simply in their element.
But I would expect as much from a critically acclaimed production direct from the London Palladium.
In one of musical theatre's most iconic love stories, Captain Von Trapp played by Michael Praed, falls for the inherently confused Maria.
But it is not a gradual easing down amorous alley as the pair are launched into wedlock before you have time to blink.
Their burgeoning romance is more of an explosive nature akin to a Las Vegas wedding and is too fast developing to be devotedly believable.
Whether the characters were surmounting the grassy road to Switzerland, shaking their heads at Maria's mixed-up postulation at Nonnberg Abbey or indulging in ultimate decadence at the Von Trapp villa, the sets are beautifully original.
The transition between each of the leading production stations is so smooth you could be forgiven for thinking you lay in a slumberous quiescence.
The singing, accompanied by the effortlessly atmospheric orchestra, is note perfect but the plaudits must go to the youthful fundamental.
The seven dwarfs of the Von Trapp family are so powerfully demanding of attention that even the European hills watching quietly from the back of the stage were applauding.
An exhilarating trip down memory lane, just without a speed limit or a handbrake.
8/10
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