MIRANDA YATES Since the singalong versions gave The Sound of Music the official stamp of camp and encouraged hordes of hairy men to step into habits and lederhosen it has, inevitably, become difficult to take a straight version.

MIRANDA YATES

Since the singalong versions gave The Sound of Music the official stamp of camp and encouraged hordes of hairy men to step into habits and lederhosen it has, inevitably, become difficult to take a straight version.

And being trapped with the sinfully sugary screen version of the Von Trapp family every public holiday doesn't help matters either.

I confess, I didn't expect to enjoy this. However, the Theatre Royal's Youth Theatre production was indeed a drop of golden sun.

Hayley Thompson makes a suitably unsuitable nun and her wholesome mid-range voice makes tidy work of the solos alongside Danny Whitby's lively yet unobtrusive piano.

Nicholas Potts is appropriately starchy as the captain who needs to keep things shipshape since his wife's untimely death chilled his heart. Little Gretl is, of course, as sweet as a Viennese pastry. Liesel's ever-so-slightly edgy song about being on the brink of “the world of men and things beyond your ken” is adventurously choreographed and bristling with first love frissons. And the sliding scale of Von Trapp kids were all feisty and sang beautifully in chorus despite their horrible curtain outfits.

If there were any hills around here, I'm sure they'd be alive and the show has a long, long way to run… well, until Saturday.