By James V. Ruocco
It's a story like no other.
And so, it begins.
Ivoryton Playhouse's exhilarating "The Sound of Music" - replete with the melodic, skillfully crafted music and lyrics of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II - lovingly transports theatergoers back to the Austrian mountains of yesterday backed by an engaging, hummable track of iconic showtunes including "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," "Edelweiss" and lastly, the sweet-sounding title song itself draped in abundant swatches of heart, emotion and genuine harmony.
Enjoyable, abundant and grinning from ear to ear, this production is not only sweet and tuneful, but affectionate, nostalgic and charming.
It is wholesome feel-good, candy-coated entertainment laced with homespun dazzle, wit, radiance and demand.
It warms the heat.
It lives up to its expectations.
It builds and sustains interest intuitively without missing a beat.
It enchants and delights.
It also doesn't tamper with history or the musical's original conceit as envisioned by Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) and Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, who wrote the book.
Set in 1938, "The Sound of Music" takes its cue from Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" and the popular 1956 German films "The Trapp Family" and its 1958 sequel "The Trapp Family in America" which starred Ruth Leuwerik as Maria von Trapp and Hans Holt as Baron Von Trapp.
Then and now, it musically portrays the familiar story of a young Austrian novitiate who becomes governess to seven children, falls in love their father, marries him and becomes stepmother to his two sons and five daughters. For story purposes, some of the real-life events of the von Trapp family have been altered for dramatic purposes including the dates of their first meeting and subsequent marriage, the names of the actual children and the family's escape from the Nazis over the Austrian mountains in Saltzberg to Switzerland on foot.
First and foremost, this is musical theatre - not a documentary.
As composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein, "The Sound of Music" is rife with popular show tunes and musical numbers that pretty much everyone in the audience has heard before and wants to hear again and again.
A reminder of Broadway's golden age of musicals, the score itself is old-fashioned, sentimental, cheery and plot moving, all dusted off and performed with a recognizable lilt and brightness that takes hold of the theatergoer at every musical form.
The Ivoryton mounting features pretty much all the songs from the original 1959 stage musical that starred Mary Martin, Theordore Bikel and Marian Marlowe (the deliciously witty "How Can Love Survive?" has sadly been cut for time constraints) plus two songs that were written especially for the 1965 Julie Andrews/Christopher Plummer motion picture adaptation.
In order of performance, they are: "Preludium," "The Sound of Music," "My Favorite Things," "I Have Confidence in Me," "Do-Re-Mi," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," "My Favorite Things," "The Sound of Music (reprise)," "So Long, Farewell," "Climb Every Mountain," "The Sound of Music/My Favorite Things (reprise)," "No Way to Stop It," "Something Good," "Gaudeamus Domino," "Maria (reprise)," "The Lonely Goatherd," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen (reprise)," "Do-Re-Mi (reprise), "Edelweiss," "So Long, Farewell (reprise)" and "Climb Every Mountain (reprise).
Acting as musical director for the Ivoryton Playhouse revival, music director Mark Ceppetelli ("Cabaret," "Catch Me If You Can," "Young Frankenstein") brings great energy, contrast, mood, tilt and tone to the Rodgers and Hammerstein score, carefully conveying the intended meaning of every musical number, its sense of line and purpose, its story progression and its signature theatricality.
As "The Sound of Music" evolves, there's also a remarkable, natural urgency and commitment to the actual music that beautifully cements its staying power, its nostalgia, its sweetness and its fluency.
Doubling as conductor and keyboardist one, Ceppetelli surrounds himself with a first-class orchestral team headed by Nick Stanford (keyboardist two), Elliot Wallace (percussion), Jordan Brint (bass), Lauren Holtshouser (trumpet), Renee Redman (horn), Phoebe Suzuki (violin), Harry Kliewe (reed one) and Mike Raposo (reed two).
Ceppetelli's sense of fun and inventiveness creates a lyrical, crisply balanced interplay within the orchestra that brings the right characteristics and clarity to the musical score and nicely conveys its traditional Broadway sound and spirit, its rhythm and beats, its playfulness and dash and its attractive, adorably sweet essentials.
"No Way to Stop It," sung here with melodic drive, spirit and panache by Beverley J. Ricci (Elsa Schraeder), David Pittisinger (Captain von Trapp) and R. Bruce Connelly (Max Detweiler) heightens the dramatic momentum of the story, its references to society and position, its politics, its compromises and the imminent arrival of the "Anschluss." "Edelweiss," sung magnificently by Pittisinger, reflects not only the Captain's loyalty to Austria, but his subliminal goodbye to his beloved homeland as well. "I Have Confidence in Me," performed with joyful exhuberance and chiming radiance by Adrianne Hick (Maria Rainer) melodically portrays the character's readiness to greet life's challenges in order to succeed.
Staging "The Sound of Music," director Jacqueline Hubbard ("Steel Magnolias," "Rent," "Calendar Girls," "Star of Freedom") brings an effortless virtuosity and expressive sincerity to this revival that makes its spin and tilt with vintage worthy strength, thrill and tumble. Yes, pretty much everyone in the audience has seen "The Sound of Music" before. Yes, they know the story. Yes, they know the ending. Yes, they know the songs. Yes, they know who sings what. Yes, they know what's real and what's been reimagined for the stage.
No matter.
With Hubbard at the helm, this "Sound of Music" is so much more than just another Rodgers and Hammerstein revival. The sheer fun of it is watching how smoothly things comes together despite its obvious familiarity. Regardless, this incarnation has been rethought and reconfigured by Hubbard. Songs have been rearranged or reshaped to recognize the vocal talents of certain performers or heighten the dramatic evolution of the story. There's more emphasis on characterization, line delivery and exchange. The teen romance between Liesel and Rolf is more age appropriate with just the right amount of flirtation, innocence and sexual attraction. There's also much more of a romantic involvement and coupling between Maria and Captain von Trapp that Hubbard conveys with admirable conviction, sway and spark. Elsewhere, her lightness of touch, straightforward confidence and invigorating pacing is yet another highlight of this production.
With a host of starring roles to her credit including Nellie Forbush in "South Pacific," Mother in "Ragtime," Allison in "Fun Home," Fantine in "Les Misérables" and Miss Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls," who better than Adrianne Hick to play Maria Rainer in "The Sound of Music." With a crisp, clear, endearing soprano voice, she brings a fresh excitement, stir and musicality to this revival, offset by a charismatic persona and charm that she projects with confidence, truth and believability.
Her Maria is one of determination, realness and spark that befits the material, makes it glide and slide, charm and cajole and makes you forget about all those other Maria's out there from Julie Andrews, Petula Clark and Sally Anne Howes to Laura Benanti, Carrie Underwood and Rebecca Luker.
Acting wise and vocally, Hick is full beam lustre mixed with anxious delight, glorious enthusiasm, lively spirit and genuine Broadway savvy. Every song she is asked to sing - "Do-Re-Me," "I Have Confidence in Me." "My Favorite Things," among others - is rich, expressive, full of heart, color and melodic interpretation.
David Pittsinger, as Captain von Trapp has a rich, deep, powerful baritone voice reminiscent of opera stars at the MET. It's a voice so pleasing to one's ears, it's easy to see why Hubbard, as director, and Ceppetelli, as music director, chose to add Pittsinger, as vocalist, to musical numbers Captain von Trapp is not actually a part of including "The Lonely Goatherd." It's a magnificent turn and one that adds fuel to the proceedings and the material at hand.
As Mother Abbess, Patricia Schuman invests the role of the Nonnberg Abbey's mother superior with a surefire wisdom and humanity that adds a realness and centeredness to the character similar to that of Patricia Newey in the 1959 Broadway production. Schulman also gets to perform one of the show's most memorable musical numbers - the haunting, anthem-like solo "Climb Every Mountain" at the end of Act One. As expected, it's a five-star vocal showpiece. grandly voiced in true mezzo soprano fashion. Bryn Martin and Ian Christenson, in the roles of Liesel von Trapp and Rolf Gruber, are not only perfectly cast as the musical's teen romantics but offer so much more in terms of characterization, charisma, innocence and presence than what was written in the original play text.
An affectionate, sweet and confidant revival "The Sound of Music" comes to Ivoryton Playhouse with a fresh vitality and a home spun immediacy that is brilliantly enhanced by director Jacqueline Hubbard, music director Mark Ceppetelli and an astute, charismatic cast headed by Adrianne Hick, David Pittsinger and Patricia Schuman.
Though comparisons to the 1965 Academy Award-winning film and the original 1959 Broadway production are inevitable, this incarnation finds its own special way to entertain, mesmerize and enchant theatergoers all over again with its teaming good cheer, its heartwarming story, its rapturous musical score and its old-fashioned sentiment.
As theatre, it is music making at its finest with a unique look, a real sense of wisdom and a youthful exuberance that befits the oft-told story of a perky postulant who becomes governess to the von Trapp family, marries her handsome employer and discovers that there is so much more to life than "whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles, warm woolen mittens and brown paper packages tied up with strings."
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