DAILY EXPRESS – SIMON EDGE
“This Summer is a Scorcher!” “Summer Strallen is superb – a magnificent addition to Jeremy Sams’s thrilling production… As the captain Simon Burke comes alive through the music Maria brings into the house…their passion has a truth that goes beyond the all-too-familiar pairing of Andrews and Plummer on film… With spring in the air may it usher in a long, hot summer of Strallen”
THE TIMES – SAM MARLOWE
Anyone who saw her dazzling turn in The Drowsy Chaperone last summer will already suspect it, but her performance as Maria Rainer in this classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical confection eliminates doubt: Summer Strallen is a star…Jeremy Sams's production remains a delicious Viennese whirl of a show, elegant and sweet while stopping just short of toothache. And the cast is uniformly strong, with Simon Burke an imposing Von Trapp, Amy Lennox pretty, petulant and vulnerable as Liesl and Margaret Preece as a fine-voiced Mother Abbess.
MARK SHENTON - SUNDAY EXPRESS
“…the sensational Strallen…is so summery and self-possessed
that she could thaw any winter frost…Simon Burke is both robust
and touching as Captain von Trapp…”
THE DAILY MAIL – ROBERT GORE LANGTON
“Ms Strallen with her bob and a fine, strong voice is a winner…A few of my other favourite things: Simon Burke’s terrific Captain …who when emotionally thawed out by the music can’t keep his von Trapp shut”
DAILY TELEGRAPH – CHARLES SPENCER
The good news is that Summer Strallen… turns out to be terrific
as Maria...
She negotiates the show's stickier passages of sentimentality with admirable
crispness, has a lovely gift for comedy, and strikes real sparks in the
love scenes with Simon Burke's splendid Captain von Trapp, whose rigid
grief and icy reserve are melted by Maria's warmth and innocence.
WHAT’S ON STAGE – MICHAEL COVENEY
Summer Strallen is a perfect Maria… a demure, determined girl growing gracefully into womanhood and the acceptance of her sexuality as God’s gift of grace and beauty…the scene where she first dances with Simon Burke’s beautifully acted Captain (he resembles a stocky blond version of the young Pablo Picasso), having unlocked the musical talents of the children, is the centrepiece of a show primarily about the power of singing, the creation of song, the unstoppable sound of music.
© 2007 Simon Burke