The Sound of Music: Is it a musical theatre cliché? For those who’ve seen it many times, it surely might be. It verges on teeth-on-edge sweet. It’s not the best of Rogers and Hammerstein’s scores. And having it played over and over via video recordings may have put some folks over the edge. (Not that this happened in my family, but….)
I’m happy to report that the Muny’s current staging is a pleasure. In avoiding the excesses we tend to think of with the show, they’ve come up with a charming, easy-to-enjoy rendition. It left me walking out thinking, okay, exactly why did I find this so likeable? One tries to avoid the critic-as-curmudgeon thing, for sure, but WHY is a constant question in this line of endeavor.
Director Matt Kunkel has chosen to go in the direction of subtlety. On a stage this size, it’s easier to deal in broadly drawn manifestations of character, but Kunkel has throttled back just a tad to let the story and the music reveal themselves without that push. Kate Rockwell’s Maria does not run around figuratively leaping on rocks to show us her zest for life. She’s certainly warm and relatable when we first meet her apologizing to Reverend Mother Abbess (Bryonha Marie Parham), but not hyperactive. Captain von Trapp, played by Michael Hayden, despite his hard-nosed insistence on discipline early in the play, relaxes pretty quickly, rather than remaining stiff but slightly warmer, as has often been the case in the past.
Even Frau Schraeder, the widowed Captain’s fiancee-to-be, here played by Jenny Powers, no longer seems to be an ancestor of Cruella deVil, just an upper-class woman who thinks the Captain is a good match for her. And Max Detweiler, the family friend and concert impressario, usually played pretty broadly, is given a more subtle turn by John Scherer. Even the children, who were clearly cast for their singing abilities, not because of how well they stairstep down the age gradient, come across that way.
All this adds up to a story that’s more human and less Grimm’s Fairy Tales. It becomes the love story of a marriage.
Rockwell sounds great, Hayden perhaps not quite so remarkable but his acting makes up for it. There’s good chemistry between them. Parham turns out to be a Missouri native, and every once in a while you can hear it in the way she handles a note, not quite the staid and proper abbess, but very satisfying. The children, some of which are clearly old enough to be irritated by my use of that category (which means about 9 or so, in my experience), are Elizabeth Teeter, Victor de Paula Rocha, Amelie Lock, Parker Dzuba, Jillian Depke, Abby Hogan and Kate Scarlett Kappel. Young Ms Kappel is the only one given the green light to be aggressively Cute, and is appropriately delightful. The offspring sound particularly wonderful.
Paige Hathaway’s scenic design gets particularly high marks for the wedding scene, using all the Muny’s new toys to maximum advantage, in conjunction with Caite Hevner’s video design, to be sure. Ben Whiteley directs the pit orchestra, an ensemble that Rogers and Hammerstein always made full use of, and it’s very satisfying. Beth Crandall’s choreography adds to the romance. Tristan Raines’ costumes are also in keeping with the non-comic book look of the show, although in honesty one cannot help but be taken by Max Detweiler’s clothing, a symphony in plaid. Notice that in the last scene the children become clad in colors that would blend right into that mountain that they’re about to climb.
Definitely worth a second – or even a fifth – look.
The Sound of Music
through August 9
The Muny
1 Theatre Drive
Forest Park