Theater comes alive with `Music'
The last musical by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse), “The Sound of Music” has been consistently popular since its 1959 Broadway debut. For drama's sake, Lindsay and Crouse took many liberties with historical facts of the von Trapp family and their escape from Nazi oppression, liberties that only add to the impact of the show. Its hopeful, empowering message and gorgeous music have lost neither luster nor relevance in the intervening 63 years.
Mill Valley's Throckmorton Theatre has launched a sumptuous production of the modern classic starring Katrina Lauren McGraw as Maria, a wouldbe nun assigned to work as a nanny for the von Trapp family near Salzburg, Austria. She arrives at the von Trapp estate before the country's 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany, and quickly befriends the family's seven children, initially alienating then beguiling their father Capt. Georg von Trapp (David Schiller), decorated hero of the Austrian Navy.
A stiff military man, Capt. von Trapp has no clue about how to raise and nurture his kids. He treats them like conscripts, forcing them to respond to whistles and to march endlessly in lieu of play. Enter the bashful but assertive Maria, who casts her spell over them all with lovely renditions of “My Favorite Things” and “Do-Re-Mi.” Soon they are joyfully running and singing, much to the dismay of their father.
Clearly the new nanny is a
force to reckon with, but there are larger forces at work — the burgeoning Nazi movement with its assertions of racial superiority and its insistence on uniting German-speaking people in one “greater Germany.” Capt. von Trapp has been offered a commission in the German Navy but is adamantly opposed to the Nazis, to the dismay of his neighbors and associates, one of whom, the impresario Max Detweiler (Danny Slomoff), advises him to capitulate and “sit tight until the whole thing blows over.”
The captain's woes are further complicated by the attentions of potential marriage partner Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Kimberly Marron), chief executive officer of an industrial company. The Baroness is no Nazi, but she, like Max, pragmatically counsels going with the flow, as we say today. Marron has good stage presence but her Baroness doesn't exude the air of class privilege that we might expect from one with her pedigree.
Nor does German Adm. von Schreiber (Ryan Camou), who arrives late in the show to ensure that the captain accepts his commission. Nazi characters are easy to parody but difficult to imbue with any sense of humanity.
Not that the story needs a sympathetic Nazi other than young Rolf Gruber (Noah Ong Bamola), sheepish boyfriend of Liesl von Trapp (Maisie McPeek on opening night), eldest of the von Trapp brood. Rolf's moment of moral clarity is the plot device that propels the show's heroic finale. The closing scenes involve a shift from the stage of an Austrian amphitheater to the abbey gardens, a difficult transition nicely managed by director Adam Maggio. The show's gorgeous set design is by Throckmorton's resident genius Steve Coleman.
With excellent diction, a beautiful singing voice and confident stage presence, McPeek is a standout, as is Desiree Goyette as the Mother Abbess whose vocals soar in this immersive production, strongly supported by
an excellent orchestra conducted by Justin Pyne in the back of the hall. The immersive effect is seductive — we are transfixed and transported from the opening moment with the ensemble singing of a dozen nuns.
Annabelle Garfinkel is superb as middle child Brigitta, the girl who cannot tell a lie, and of course, little Gretl (Juliette Bambuck-Vasquez
on opening night) warms the hearts of even the most curmudgeonly.
The von Trapp kids are all delightful onstage, but “The Sound of Music” is clearly a star vehicle for Katrina Lauren McGraw. It's her show all the way.
Whatever prior sound problems the Throckmorton may have had appear to be solved, except
for the understandable enthusiasm of parents on opening night, many of whom seated in the orchestra section stage right couldn't resist whooping and whistling as often and as loudly as possible — so much so that audience members in the front few rows kept looking back to see who was being so annoying.
One might imagine that
Mill Valley audiences are more sophisticated than those in Cabbage Patch USA, but apparently that's not the case. Whistling loudly at the end of a wellperformed song might be OK, but not at the first few notes of a tender one simply because you recognize what's coming, and certainly not in the midst of one. With a few notable exceptions, musical theater productions aren't rock concerts. Parents, please save the whooping for sports events and the whistling for calling your dogs.
But no matter. This “Sound of Music” is a real winner with a pervasive feel-good takeaway. Exit buzz on opening night was full of comments like “I want to see it again.” Endorsements don't get any more genuine than that. The Mother Abbess reminds us: You must look for your life. Climb every mountain.