The Sound of Music was the final offering of the musical team that had started the Golden Age of Broadway, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Opening a month before the end of the 1950s with Mary Martin in the role of the guitar-toting postulant Maria, the team created one of their sweetest concoctions yet. Not everyone fell in love with it, though. Brooks Atkinson, critic for The New York Times, accused Rodgers and Hammerstein of creating a scenario that "has the hackneyed look of the musical theatre [they] replaced with Oklahoma! in 1943." Mr. Atkinson had a point, but that didn't dissuade audiences from attending the original Broadway run of 1,433 performances, or deter Hollywood from making the 1965 movie adaptation a classic.
With a mix of adorable children, a hit parade of a score, just enough darkness in the 1938 Austrian setting, and the movie's memory to sell it, this is a show that seems a natural for a joint venture between the Scottsdale Community Players and Greasepaint Scottsdale Youtheatre. With interim Artistic Director D. Scott Withers at the helm, and a talented cast, the show should deliver the goods. Unfortunately, sluggish pacing, longish scene changes, and surprisingly tentative performances by its two leads make this an average production unable to achieve exhilarating.
The show is a bear technically. For Set Designer Michael Brooks, it has textual movement between an abbey, a mountaintop, and various room inside and outside of a grand mansion. For costumer Mathew Gnagy, it requires extensive costuming for seven kids and a small Austrian village of a cast. For Mr. Withers, that cast of 25 that seems to have had a difficult time maintaining the required clip to bring the show in under three hours. This is one of those instances where cutting a few of the more expendable songs, such as "I Have Confidence" and the reprise of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" might have helped. While not a dance showcase, Elizabeth Reynold's choreography is sometimes inappropriate for the performer and situation, such as the overly-acrobatic dance she has created for "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" in which the actress is asked to jump onto a bench in a long skirt, although she gets it perfect with "Lonely Goatherd."
The children steal the show, which is both a good and a bad thing. There's little competition from John Haubner's Captain von Trapp, who overplayed his character's rigidity until he loosened up in the second act. The sweet-voiced Brandi Bigley was inconsistent through the first act, cramping her beautiful voice and making her movement awkward. Again, as the second act commenced, she began to shake it off, which could mean both Ms. Bigley and Mr. Haubner were suffering from opening night jitters that will dissipate during the run. The only ones in the cast the children don't outshine are the wonderfully droll Jeremie McCubbin as the ingratiating Max Detweiler, Lisa Robbins, who, though unable to project, is the embodiment of the shrewd "other woman" Elsa Schraeder, and the powerful Carrie Oliver, who acts and sings The Mother Abbess impressively.
As a unit, the Von Trapp children are there to steal your heart. While Shanda Reprogle plays sixteen-going-on-seventeen Leisl too modern, she obviously leads the septet and sets their tone. Wise-beyond-her-years Brigitta is played smartly by Lauren Zoe. Chelsea Groen and Shannon Pauly are never afraid to play their youngest characters for the audience's approval. Travis Mondesitt's Rolf does an acceptable transition between kid-in-love and eventual messenger-in-Nazi-uniform. The ensemble does their job, with standouts being the singing of the nun's chorus, and Jack Pauly and Tom Connick as interloping Nazi commanders.
Mr. Brooks' set is a disappointment in comparison to his other creations. Here, the mountains, which do work for a great visual at the end of the evening, look more like Arizona than Austria, and the implied grandeur of the von Trapp household doesn't quite succeed. Mr. Gnagy's costumes are generally appropriate, while Michael Eddy's lighting and Dave Temby's sound are more consistent.
The Sound of Music is never an easy production to undertake, although it can succeed on its exuberance and memorable score. The opening night audience was eager to forgive all of the performance hesitations and other problems, choosing instead to focus on the successes of earnest presentations and endearing moments. I'm pickier, and didn't find myself drawn to tears as the ending often compels. As performers settle in, things should improve, and if you're not as picky as I, then you'll probably enjoy and be moved.
Production Details:
The Sound of Music Book by Howard
Lindsay and Russel Crouse, based on The Von Trapp
Family Singers by Maria Von Trapp. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
II, Music by Richard Rodgers
Scottsdale Community Players and Greasepaint Scottsdale Youtheatre
Stagebrush Theatre,
Scottsdale (For a map to location, click this
link)
(480) 990-7405
July 20th - August 5th, 2001