By Sandi Masori in San Diego
The audience in the Civic Center had a hard time sitting through The Sound of Music, which has arguably the most well-known soundtrack ever. They didn’t have a hard time sitting through the show because it was bad, in fact quite the opposite, but because of a sign on the door of the theater as you entered. And on that sign, it said “Out of respect for others around you, please refrain from singing along with this performance.”
You could see the tension in people’s faces as they tried as hard as they could to keep the songs inside, especially the big favorites like “My favorite things,” or “Do-re-me,” or “So long farewell,” or well most of them for that matter.
For the most part the audience managed to deny their inclinations and resist the urge to sing along, but it was work. Even my son, who had never seen the show, wanted to sing along because as he said, he knew almost all the songs, but didn’t know where they were from.
The audience was full of parents and grandparents sharing this classic show with the younger generation, and they were loving it.
If you are one of the people, like my son, who has never seen either the 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews or the play, which has long been a high-school musical favorite, here’s a quick run-down.
Set in 1930s Austria, as the Nazis are rising to power, widower Captain Von Trapp (Kevin Earley) travels a lot for work, leaving his seven children at home with a governess and the staff. The children are naughty and play tricks on the governess, leading to a revolving door of help. Since his wife died, the captain runs a tight ship, summoning everyone by whistle and having the children march around the yard for fun and exercise.
In the meantime, Maria (Cayleigh Capaldi) is a postulant (nun in training) at the Abbey. But she is too spirited and sings too much to be a proper nun. So, the Mother Abbess (Christiane Noll) tells her that it’s G-d’s will that she should leave the abbey and go to be the new governess for the Von Trapp family.
She quickly builds a rapport with the kids and through music and song, transforms the family. This being a Rogers and Hammerstein musical, of course she and Captain Von Trapp fall in love.
This is all happening as the Nazis are coming to power. Captain Von Trapp is not a fan of the Nazis, which, as you know, was a very dangerous position to take. Chaos and drama ensue.
So, first things first: the play is very well done, great energy from all the actors, good choreography by Danny Medford, and wonderful direction by former Old Globe artistic director Jack O’ Brien. The sets by scenic designer Douglas W Schmidt were detailed and gorgeous, sliding on and off the stage to become the walls of the abbey or the mansion as needed.
There was one piece of scenic design that caused a visceral reaction in the audience though, and that’s when the Nazi banners are lowered as the Third Reich takes over. You could feel people tense up when the banners dropped. One of my friends, who also happened to be at the show, even asked me after, “did you have a reaction too when the banners dropped?”
My son noted that it felt weird to clap for the musical numbers that were performed in front of the banners.
As Capaldi put it during the actor chatback after the show, “there’s never been a time when the show is more relevant. We’re reeducating people because we have forgotten.” Of course, this story is not a Jewish story, and no mention of what’s happening to the Jews is in the play, but you do feel the pressure of non-Jews to conform to the will of the totalitarian government.
We learned some other interesting info during the chatback. Earley shared with us that the play actually preceded the movie by five years, and that the movie changed some things from how they are portrayed in the show. (Often there is an actor chatback on the first Wednesday performance at Broadway San Diego, usually it’s the supporting cast that comes out to take audience questions. We got lucky this time, and the principals came out to talk to us.)
Someone in the audience asked if they had changed anything to reflect our current situation, and the cast said no, nothing had been changed, but you may hear it differently because of the current political climate. Except for one thing, in one song, the word “to” was changed to “with.” It went from “You belong TO your husband” to “You belong WITH” your husband.” That was a change that O’Brien made and in the 67 years that the play has been staged, O’Brien is the only director ever given permission to change a line in a song.
In answer to another question, the actors agreed that it was nice to see so many young kids in the audience and hope that the experience leads them to either work in the arts, or to grow up to be patrons.
The Sound of Music plays at Broadway San Diego through May 31. Bring the whole family, but remember, don’t sing along.
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Associate Editor Sandi Masori is a theater and food reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.