THE SOUND OF MUSIC at Ohio Theatre

Stop me when you have heard this one before …

Perhaps there is nothing worse than hearing the same joke or the same story over and over again. That is what the national tour of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is up against every performance.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s masterpiece has become so much a part of the cultural landscape that it’s easy to overlook its beauty and meaning. The film version of the musical and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS seem to resurface every Easter. Everyone has seen it, everyone knows the story and everyone sings along with it.

Yet, THE SOUND OF MUSIC troupe, which performs Feb. 24-March 1 at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State Street in downtown Columbus), uses a spirited performance, shifting scenery, and a wonderfully orchestrated score to reconnect the classic with those who grew up with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer’s version of it.

Every SOUND OF MUSIC performance lives or dies by the person playing Maria. (Just ask Carrie Underwood.) This is Capaldi’s second time taking on a role made famous by Andrews, having played the lead role in a regional production of MARY POPPINS. She brings a flurry of kinetic energy to the role, whether she is defending her actions to Mother Abbess (Christiane Noll) or pulling the reluctant von Trapp children into singing. Despite the age gap, you can feel the awkward first steps towards romance between Maria and Captain Georg von Trapp (Kevin Earley) in the waltzing scene.

It’s hard to imagine THE SOUND OF MUSIC without a lovable batch of children. These seven are adorable as they move from reluctance toward the new governess to being taken in by her playfulness. Haddie Mac shines as the witty, truth-telling observant Brigitta. She is the one who notices how Maria blushes after dancing with the Captain and how her father is falling hard for the governess.

Ariana Ferch (Liesl) has teenage angst down to a science with her playful flirtation with Rolf Gruber (Ian Coursey) in the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” However, her best moment is easy to overlook. In the “Do-Re-Mi,” she retreats with a “this is so dumb” look on her face and starts to head upstairs. However, as she observes how much fun her siblings are having with Maria, she stops mid-step and allows herself to join in the fun.

Often the side characters are the most interesting to watch. Take Max Detweiler (Nicholas Rodriguez). He is a leech that clings on to those who can advance his career, even if that person is a Nazi. He confides, “I like rich people. I like the way they live. I like the way I live when I’m with them.”

Having taken a vow of poverty, Abbess is the polar opposite of Detweiler but Noll brings life to the complex role. She is exasperated when Maria fails to show for vespers, throwing her hands in the air as she points to the gap in the line where the young nun was supposed to stand. Yet she is the one who tells Maria to follow her dreams in “Climb E’vry Mountain,” even if those dreams take her outside the abbey.

One of the more interesting parts of this production doesn’t say a word. The movie was shot in over 20 different locations in Austria and had its interior scenes built in Hollywood. Douglas W. Schmidt’s set design translates all the scenery of the movie onto the Ohio Theatre stage. Inside, the audience travels to dark recesses of Abbess’s office to a gigantic stained glass window of the abbey to the graveyard where the singers make their escape. It also moves through the hills of Austria and the staircases and the gazebo of the von Trapp mountain mansion.

Musically, conductor Jonathan Marro guides the 14-piece orchestra, replete with strings, woodwinds, and brass section, through the peaks and valleys of the script as smoothly as the scene changes. The musical includes two songs deleted from the movie version, ‘”How Can Love Survive?” and “No Way To Stop It,” both performed by the trio of Captain von Trapp, Max, and Elsa Schraeder (understudy Tess Primack filed in for Kate Loprest on the Feb. 24 opener).

Seeing CABARET and THE SOUND OF MUSIC in the same week, one realizes the same idea of waiting out the storm of Hitler reign is in both. After Capt. von Trapp states he will never bow to the Nazis, Max shrugs and says, “You don’t have to bow your head, just stoop a little!”

The same is true of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. One doesn’t need to genuflect to this show, but one should realize its importance. Old musicals still have something to say. That’s why we need to stop and listen, even if we have heard it many times before. We may know every note by heart, but that doesn’t mean we’ve learned the lesson.

Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

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