The Sound of Music at the Spotlight Theater: A Review
A young woman leaves the safety of the convent to join a family as governess in Austria in 1938. Knowing full well at the outset that the head of the household is a taskmaster and a military captain in the Austrian navy, she tries to go against the grain and teach the children to love music, and play in the community.
Through a mix of childlike innocence and very well manifested maternal instincts, Maria von Trapp worms her way into the heart of the seven von Trapp children, and spoiler alert, Captain von Trapp. And I was along for the ride, as I am with every production.
I made a last minute decision to see The Sound of Music on opening night at the Spotlight Theater in Moline, Illinois, on Friday, December 3rd. Now you might be asking yourself, "Greg, your wife Sara is stage manager of the show, and you only decided to purchase a ticket at the last minute?"
Let me explain. I had purchased tickets for the opening Saturday online, days in advance. But I decided to forego going to the Lewistown basketball game at the last second, and hit the highway in the off-chance of making the right exit from Interstate 74 to 7th Avenue in Moline.
It was time and money well-spent.
I was able to purchase my ticket at 6:56 for the 7 pm show. I no sooner got my coat off than the nuns of the Nonnberg Abbey launched into song from the aisles of the theater. I was seated nearest the nun played by Bella Kuta. She had a beautiful voice, and her pronunciation of the Latin was crisp and well-rehearsed. Not wanting to distract her, I didn't turn my head to watch her. But other people couldn't help themselves. Everyone around me was twisting their neck to see the face. She really had a lovely voice.
And for Saturday's show, I was in section E, so I had a good view from the other side of the auditorium.
Speaking of lovely voices, in a short time, the stage was taken by Lily Blouin as Maria Rainer, the novitiate nun who really can't help herself but to run out into the hillside and burst into song. And to wander the Abbey and burst into song. The Mother Abbess, played by Dolores Sierra, actually does love to hear Maria sing. She encourages her to sing. And it is with this sense that she needs to spread her wings and embrace the real world, without restrictions, that the Mother Abbess notifies young Maria that she will be leaving the Abbey. She does so in a compassionate tone.
In productions I have seen of Sound of Music, Mother Abbesses have ranged from task-masker to maternal. Dolores played her very much as a mother and mentor. She was reassuring to Maria that all would turn out well.
We have Victor Angelo take the stage as Captain Von Trapp, home on leave, there to welcome his new governess.
I have always loved the comic relief of the scene where Maria meets the children and the Captain. If not for the fact that the story is in Austria in 1938, and our knowledge that; as the film helpfully points out; it's the last days of the Golden Days in Austria in the 1930's before German occupation and World War II, The Sound of Music would appear to be a comedy, even a farce, at the outset. The premise is ripe for a laugh a minute riot. And it does deliver laughs! Lily Blouin has a pluck and earnestness that makes for a winning contrast to Captain Von Trapp's icy cool demeanor. She just can't be repressed. And it's hilarious watching the entire staff of Von Trapp's household try.
Of course, Maria proves herself worthy of the governess role by asking the children questions. Learning about their interests. Befriending Liesel when she climbs up the eaves of the house and lands in Maria's bedroom, soaking wet and stained, during a thunderstorm. Rather than turn her into father, who surely would have given her a very firm punishment, Maria tells her to soak her dress in the bathtub and return for a chat.
Her willingness to bring all seven Von Trapp children into the bedroom and sing to them during the thunderstorm wins them over wholeheartedly.
Von Trapp, at first reluctant, begins to lower his reserve, let down his guard, and sing with the children. Once he hears their voices, it is the sound of music, literally, that helps him to find closure with his first wife's death, and love the children that they had together again.
At that moment, like a light switch, Captain von Trapp becomes Georg, or more to the point, dad.
Lily Blouin as Maria, for her part, is already making the transition from Fraulein Maria to Mom.
There is just one thing standing in the way in Act 1, of course. That's Baroness Elsa Schraeder. She has already claimed Georg as her future husband. And yet, as Elsa and Uncle Max, played by Chris Tracy, sing and dance around Captain von Trapp singing "How Can Love Survive," we sense that von Trapp himself can already see this as a marriage that's doomed. Not for want of money! But the whole point of the song, one of my dad's favorites from the whole show, is that Elsa and Georg aren't exactly The Gift of the Magi couple.
It's quite hilarious to watch Kristen Marietta as Elsa and Tracy as Uncle Max, taunting von Trapp with the knowledge that they both have mansions, and yet they'll make it happen.
Except that Maria von Trapp is the children's governess. And she's about to bring music back into von Trapp's life for the first time.
There is nothing von Trapp can really give Elsa that she doesn't already have. Getting to be a mother? She doesn't want to be a mother. There's a line in a previous version of The Sound of Music where Schraeder talks of solving the problem of the kids by sending them off to boarding school.
As for Maria, well, it's pointless for her to avoid the fact that she's falling in love with Georg von Trapp. Watching the scene where they dance to the Laendler at the banquet is actually like watching The Office, Season 2, Casino Night. Jim and Pam betting all their chips. It's obvious that by the end of the night Jim is going to confess to Pam that he's in love with her. Even though she's engaged to Roy.
Much like Jim Halpert ran off to Dunder Mifflin in Stamford the next season, Fraulein Maria goes back to the Abbey. And this is where Dolores Sierra really gets to shine.
She doesn't put it in as many words, but we know exactly what the Mother Abbess is telling Maria when she sings "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." Don't Give Up. The von Trapp Household is where you are being called. This is your life. This is your future. Elsa is a momentary distraction for Georg von Trapp, but wait things out. He'll have the welcome wagon ready for you when you return, and he'll have Franz the Butler pack up the Baroness' car.
It really was great to watch Lily and Victor onstage. They had an intimacy to their interactions you don't always get with The Sound of Music. You sensed that von Trapp had been humanized all along. Maria didn't teach him how to love his children, or music, again. He knew that all along. She just teased it out of him. She retrieved that part of his personality for him.
There were a lot of other great moments in this particular musical. Watching Amber Whitaker as Liesl, for example, surreptitiously sneak out of the house for a meeting with Rolf, played by the limber and handsome Max Robnett. (I was in "hey it's that guy" mode the whole time during "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," when I finally remembered my wife telling me he had played the historian, Not Dead Fred, and the prince in Spamalot at Music Guild!) He was great fun to watch!
Then the mother daughter dynamic kicks in with Liesl and Maria. Their age difference probably isn't that profound. Liesl indicates as much when she says she doesn't need a governess. When Maria totally saves her from the lick of the strap, she admits she does. And the fact that she goes to the trouble to call her "mother" in the second half of the play establishes that the host has welcomed the cell. Maria is family. Right away.
Whitaker was a really good fit as Liesl for a number of reasons. The "yahoo" that she made when she finally gets kissed, after "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," evokes the comic relief of the Liesl in the 1965 film version. That part is funny! Doesn't always translate to funny-romantic on the stage. But it did here! And it contrasts well!
Rolf eventually drinks the kool-aid and gambles everything on joining the Third Reich. It's imaginable that he will go on to become a NAZI SS officer who forces Jews into the ghettos and from there onto transports to the concentration camps. The Rolf that was decent, kind, and lovable is nowhere to be found in the 2nd act, when he and Liesl reunite after the invasion of Austria by Germany. This well juxtaposes the devastation and the euphoria. You know that you have loved someone when you lose someone.
Then there's all the other Von Trapp kids. Orion Mack as Freidrich von Trapp had the nice touch of a military haircut. He gets spared being in German military. He gets a better life. Which is great. I'd hate to see Freidrich subverted by the Third Reich.
Kaitlyn Baker plays Luisa, and she's an absolute lookalike for Mackenzie, one of my 5th hour Spanish 1 students at Lewistown.
Evyn Hassel is Brigitta. She is the Greek Chorus of this entire play. The voice of reason. Maria is in love with Georg von Trapp. Georg is in love with her. The NAZIs are going to ruin Austria, and by extension Europe. She tells it like it is, doesn't sugar coat things, she just lays it out there. So the fact that Brigitta so willfully accepts Maria means she definitely is the one to last for this family.
Ben Bergthold plays the part of Kurt von Trapp. He's everything that you would wish for in a child actor. He just gets that you have to project, that you have to enunciate. People in the back rows appreciate that they can understand every word coming out of his mouth. Plus, he's good.
Esther Hoffman played Marta, the one who will be seven on Tuesday, and likes pink parasols. I remember the very first time I saw The Sound of Music on a stage, one of my classmates, Melissa Sweeney, was in a production of it at the Adler Theater. She was Marta. And we made a special field trip over to see it in Iowa. We were in about fourth grade, I think.
Betsy Bergthold plays the part of Gretl, and she has a sweet voice. All of the children had sweet voices.
There were other auxiliary parts that did well. Bruce Duling as the Admiral. Matt Downey as Heir Zeller. I got excited when Matt came out onstage, because he's historically been a scene-stealer, ever since he sang Benjamin Calypso in the 2007 Quad City Music Guild production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
There were all the nuns. Yvonne Siddique as Sister Margaretta. This is a name that sounds dangerously close to Margarita, which has in the past six years been the favorite name for females to pick as their Spanish name in my Spanish 1 classes. She got to sing "I'd like to say a word on her behalf. Maria makes me laugh."
Maria may have been a problem for the convent, going out and singing at random, either running away to the mountains until sunset, or singing in the Abbey. But once she gets settled in the von Trapp estate, she clears up a lot of the problems there.
When Georg needs somebody to tell him he's doing the right thing planning to run away, with the entire family, to leave Austria, be it on foot, by car, train, boat or plane; the voice of reason he needs is Maria to tell him he's doing the right thing. "Your decision is my decision," she says. That's got the message between the lines.
"We have to leave," he says.
"Of course we do," she confirms.
He knew in 1938 what our history books have taught us since. AS I am in the middle of reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" by Anne Frank, and "Night" by Elie Wiesel, and recently read "Resistance" by Jennifer A. Nielsen, I can confirm that von Trapp absolutely did the right thing in bundling up his family's luggage, singing one last concert at the festival, and leaving before the final prizes can be announced.
To be honest, that woman who took second place in the music competition probably is one of the biggest heroes of the play. Yes, it's hilarious that she can't stop herself from bowing multiple times to the audience, and to Max Detweiller, but her gratuitous curtain call actually buys precious time for the von Trapps to exit.
Because of her, they have a shot at hiking the mountains to Switzerland!
I love The Sound of Music. I love this play. I never get tired of it. It has been a long time since we have been able to enjoy live entertainment in a performance venue. I went to a concert last Thursday in Bloomington. I saw The Sound of Music twice, Friday and Saturday. Sunday, I saw Holiday Inn at Music Guild (a review is forthcoming.) It would be understandable if there was a little rustiness. It would be reasonable to assume that there were opening night butterflies, jitters, hiccups, and missed cues, after a pandemic made live theater in an enclosed area virtually impossible from March 15th, 2020 through about the end of May in 2021. I am very pleased to report that Lily Blouin, Victor Angelo and company shook the dust off and got on the stage like there hadn't been a break. Just like riding a bicycle.
Props to director Sara Tubbs for waiting, patiently, the long year to put this one out. Props to music director, Jon Jaworowski, for getting stunning vocals out of these actors. Especially the beginning with the nuns. No pitchpipe, they just come out and sing in key. It's enough to give you the chills. And the former Scottish Rite Cathedral was just the perfect venue to put on this very play.
Props to my wife, Sara Laufer, for stage managing this thing. She seems like a super-woman for coordinating the many set changes, overseeing the transformation from Abbey to the mountainside, to the Mother Abbess' office, to palatial mansion, to the garden, back to the mansion, etc. I do not begin to understand all of the work she has had on her hands, all of the cues, entrances, exits, set movements, and place-calling she has had to keep in the front of her brain over the last eight weeks.
Props to choreographer Michael Tarchala. He made the kids dance! They danced well! Really well to Doe a Deer! Sara Wegener did great with the Costume design, highlights of which were the von Trapp children's play-clothes, made out of the curtains from Maria's bedroom, and Maria's lovely wedding dress.
As for my dad, every time I have seen him since Saturday, he's been humming How Can Love Survive. Chris Tracy and Kristen Marietta, you are Dick O'Neill approved for the Max and Elsa numbers.
The Sound of Music teaches us that we do have to climb mountains in our own life. Getting the kids to pass their classes. Obeying protocol for COVID for putting on a play. Learning to manipulate Zoom and Google Meets. And yeah, I'll say it- this play is timely, because COVID is like NAZI Germany itself. It preys on everyone. It's made life dangerous. Eidelweiss, the last song before going into hiding, reminds me of our putting on Once Upon a Time and Very Far Away A Cinderella Story at Lewistown on March 13th and 14th, 2020. No idea when we could come back out to the stage again. No idea when it was safe to return. And this mountain is being climbed, much as the Allies made a beach head at Normandy, and charted a course towards Berlin, we are climbing a mountain as well, one vaccination, one hand sanitizer pump, one nasal swab, one temperature check, one mask at a time. It is fitting that The Sound of Music rounds out the return to theatre for me of 2021.
Four stars.
Through a mix of childlike innocence and very well manifested maternal instincts, Maria von Trapp worms her way into the heart of the seven von Trapp children, and spoiler alert, Captain von Trapp. And I was along for the ride, as I am with every production.
I made a last minute decision to see The Sound of Music on opening night at the Spotlight Theater in Moline, Illinois, on Friday, December 3rd. Now you might be asking yourself, "Greg, your wife Sara is stage manager of the show, and you only decided to purchase a ticket at the last minute?"
Let me explain. I had purchased tickets for the opening Saturday online, days in advance. But I decided to forego going to the Lewistown basketball game at the last second, and hit the highway in the off-chance of making the right exit from Interstate 74 to 7th Avenue in Moline.
It was time and money well-spent.
I was able to purchase my ticket at 6:56 for the 7 pm show. I no sooner got my coat off than the nuns of the Nonnberg Abbey launched into song from the aisles of the theater. I was seated nearest the nun played by Bella Kuta. She had a beautiful voice, and her pronunciation of the Latin was crisp and well-rehearsed. Not wanting to distract her, I didn't turn my head to watch her. But other people couldn't help themselves. Everyone around me was twisting their neck to see the face. She really had a lovely voice.
And for Saturday's show, I was in section E, so I had a good view from the other side of the auditorium.
Speaking of lovely voices, in a short time, the stage was taken by Lily Blouin as Maria Rainer, the novitiate nun who really can't help herself but to run out into the hillside and burst into song. And to wander the Abbey and burst into song. The Mother Abbess, played by Dolores Sierra, actually does love to hear Maria sing. She encourages her to sing. And it is with this sense that she needs to spread her wings and embrace the real world, without restrictions, that the Mother Abbess notifies young Maria that she will be leaving the Abbey. She does so in a compassionate tone.
In productions I have seen of Sound of Music, Mother Abbesses have ranged from task-masker to maternal. Dolores played her very much as a mother and mentor. She was reassuring to Maria that all would turn out well.
We have Victor Angelo take the stage as Captain Von Trapp, home on leave, there to welcome his new governess.
I have always loved the comic relief of the scene where Maria meets the children and the Captain. If not for the fact that the story is in Austria in 1938, and our knowledge that; as the film helpfully points out; it's the last days of the Golden Days in Austria in the 1930's before German occupation and World War II, The Sound of Music would appear to be a comedy, even a farce, at the outset. The premise is ripe for a laugh a minute riot. And it does deliver laughs! Lily Blouin has a pluck and earnestness that makes for a winning contrast to Captain Von Trapp's icy cool demeanor. She just can't be repressed. And it's hilarious watching the entire staff of Von Trapp's household try.
Of course, Maria proves herself worthy of the governess role by asking the children questions. Learning about their interests. Befriending Liesel when she climbs up the eaves of the house and lands in Maria's bedroom, soaking wet and stained, during a thunderstorm. Rather than turn her into father, who surely would have given her a very firm punishment, Maria tells her to soak her dress in the bathtub and return for a chat.
Her willingness to bring all seven Von Trapp children into the bedroom and sing to them during the thunderstorm wins them over wholeheartedly.
Von Trapp, at first reluctant, begins to lower his reserve, let down his guard, and sing with the children. Once he hears their voices, it is the sound of music, literally, that helps him to find closure with his first wife's death, and love the children that they had together again.
At that moment, like a light switch, Captain von Trapp becomes Georg, or more to the point, dad.
Lily Blouin as Maria, for her part, is already making the transition from Fraulein Maria to Mom.
There is just one thing standing in the way in Act 1, of course. That's Baroness Elsa Schraeder. She has already claimed Georg as her future husband. And yet, as Elsa and Uncle Max, played by Chris Tracy, sing and dance around Captain von Trapp singing "How Can Love Survive," we sense that von Trapp himself can already see this as a marriage that's doomed. Not for want of money! But the whole point of the song, one of my dad's favorites from the whole show, is that Elsa and Georg aren't exactly The Gift of the Magi couple.
It's quite hilarious to watch Kristen Marietta as Elsa and Tracy as Uncle Max, taunting von Trapp with the knowledge that they both have mansions, and yet they'll make it happen.
Except that Maria von Trapp is the children's governess. And she's about to bring music back into von Trapp's life for the first time.
There is nothing von Trapp can really give Elsa that she doesn't already have. Getting to be a mother? She doesn't want to be a mother. There's a line in a previous version of The Sound of Music where Schraeder talks of solving the problem of the kids by sending them off to boarding school.
As for Maria, well, it's pointless for her to avoid the fact that she's falling in love with Georg von Trapp. Watching the scene where they dance to the Laendler at the banquet is actually like watching The Office, Season 2, Casino Night. Jim and Pam betting all their chips. It's obvious that by the end of the night Jim is going to confess to Pam that he's in love with her. Even though she's engaged to Roy.
Much like Jim Halpert ran off to Dunder Mifflin in Stamford the next season, Fraulein Maria goes back to the Abbey. And this is where Dolores Sierra really gets to shine.
She doesn't put it in as many words, but we know exactly what the Mother Abbess is telling Maria when she sings "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." Don't Give Up. The von Trapp Household is where you are being called. This is your life. This is your future. Elsa is a momentary distraction for Georg von Trapp, but wait things out. He'll have the welcome wagon ready for you when you return, and he'll have Franz the Butler pack up the Baroness' car.
It really was great to watch Lily and Victor onstage. They had an intimacy to their interactions you don't always get with The Sound of Music. You sensed that von Trapp had been humanized all along. Maria didn't teach him how to love his children, or music, again. He knew that all along. She just teased it out of him. She retrieved that part of his personality for him.
There were a lot of other great moments in this particular musical. Watching Amber Whitaker as Liesl, for example, surreptitiously sneak out of the house for a meeting with Rolf, played by the limber and handsome Max Robnett. (I was in "hey it's that guy" mode the whole time during "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," when I finally remembered my wife telling me he had played the historian, Not Dead Fred, and the prince in Spamalot at Music Guild!) He was great fun to watch!
Then the mother daughter dynamic kicks in with Liesl and Maria. Their age difference probably isn't that profound. Liesl indicates as much when she says she doesn't need a governess. When Maria totally saves her from the lick of the strap, she admits she does. And the fact that she goes to the trouble to call her "mother" in the second half of the play establishes that the host has welcomed the cell. Maria is family. Right away.
Whitaker was a really good fit as Liesl for a number of reasons. The "yahoo" that she made when she finally gets kissed, after "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," evokes the comic relief of the Liesl in the 1965 film version. That part is funny! Doesn't always translate to funny-romantic on the stage. But it did here! And it contrasts well!
Rolf eventually drinks the kool-aid and gambles everything on joining the Third Reich. It's imaginable that he will go on to become a NAZI SS officer who forces Jews into the ghettos and from there onto transports to the concentration camps. The Rolf that was decent, kind, and lovable is nowhere to be found in the 2nd act, when he and Liesl reunite after the invasion of Austria by Germany. This well juxtaposes the devastation and the euphoria. You know that you have loved someone when you lose someone.
Then there's all the other Von Trapp kids. Orion Mack as Freidrich von Trapp had the nice touch of a military haircut. He gets spared being in German military. He gets a better life. Which is great. I'd hate to see Freidrich subverted by the Third Reich.
Kaitlyn Baker plays Luisa, and she's an absolute lookalike for Mackenzie, one of my 5th hour Spanish 1 students at Lewistown.
Evyn Hassel is Brigitta. She is the Greek Chorus of this entire play. The voice of reason. Maria is in love with Georg von Trapp. Georg is in love with her. The NAZIs are going to ruin Austria, and by extension Europe. She tells it like it is, doesn't sugar coat things, she just lays it out there. So the fact that Brigitta so willfully accepts Maria means she definitely is the one to last for this family.
Ben Bergthold plays the part of Kurt von Trapp. He's everything that you would wish for in a child actor. He just gets that you have to project, that you have to enunciate. People in the back rows appreciate that they can understand every word coming out of his mouth. Plus, he's good.
Esther Hoffman played Marta, the one who will be seven on Tuesday, and likes pink parasols. I remember the very first time I saw The Sound of Music on a stage, one of my classmates, Melissa Sweeney, was in a production of it at the Adler Theater. She was Marta. And we made a special field trip over to see it in Iowa. We were in about fourth grade, I think.
Betsy Bergthold plays the part of Gretl, and she has a sweet voice. All of the children had sweet voices.
There were other auxiliary parts that did well. Bruce Duling as the Admiral. Matt Downey as Heir Zeller. I got excited when Matt came out onstage, because he's historically been a scene-stealer, ever since he sang Benjamin Calypso in the 2007 Quad City Music Guild production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
There were all the nuns. Yvonne Siddique as Sister Margaretta. This is a name that sounds dangerously close to Margarita, which has in the past six years been the favorite name for females to pick as their Spanish name in my Spanish 1 classes. She got to sing "I'd like to say a word on her behalf. Maria makes me laugh."
Maria may have been a problem for the convent, going out and singing at random, either running away to the mountains until sunset, or singing in the Abbey. But once she gets settled in the von Trapp estate, she clears up a lot of the problems there.
When Georg needs somebody to tell him he's doing the right thing planning to run away, with the entire family, to leave Austria, be it on foot, by car, train, boat or plane; the voice of reason he needs is Maria to tell him he's doing the right thing. "Your decision is my decision," she says. That's got the message between the lines.
"We have to leave," he says.
"Of course we do," she confirms.
He knew in 1938 what our history books have taught us since. AS I am in the middle of reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" by Anne Frank, and "Night" by Elie Wiesel, and recently read "Resistance" by Jennifer A. Nielsen, I can confirm that von Trapp absolutely did the right thing in bundling up his family's luggage, singing one last concert at the festival, and leaving before the final prizes can be announced.
To be honest, that woman who took second place in the music competition probably is one of the biggest heroes of the play. Yes, it's hilarious that she can't stop herself from bowing multiple times to the audience, and to Max Detweiller, but her gratuitous curtain call actually buys precious time for the von Trapps to exit.
Because of her, they have a shot at hiking the mountains to Switzerland!
I love The Sound of Music. I love this play. I never get tired of it. It has been a long time since we have been able to enjoy live entertainment in a performance venue. I went to a concert last Thursday in Bloomington. I saw The Sound of Music twice, Friday and Saturday. Sunday, I saw Holiday Inn at Music Guild (a review is forthcoming.) It would be understandable if there was a little rustiness. It would be reasonable to assume that there were opening night butterflies, jitters, hiccups, and missed cues, after a pandemic made live theater in an enclosed area virtually impossible from March 15th, 2020 through about the end of May in 2021. I am very pleased to report that Lily Blouin, Victor Angelo and company shook the dust off and got on the stage like there hadn't been a break. Just like riding a bicycle.
Props to director Sara Tubbs for waiting, patiently, the long year to put this one out. Props to music director, Jon Jaworowski, for getting stunning vocals out of these actors. Especially the beginning with the nuns. No pitchpipe, they just come out and sing in key. It's enough to give you the chills. And the former Scottish Rite Cathedral was just the perfect venue to put on this very play.
Props to my wife, Sara Laufer, for stage managing this thing. She seems like a super-woman for coordinating the many set changes, overseeing the transformation from Abbey to the mountainside, to the Mother Abbess' office, to palatial mansion, to the garden, back to the mansion, etc. I do not begin to understand all of the work she has had on her hands, all of the cues, entrances, exits, set movements, and place-calling she has had to keep in the front of her brain over the last eight weeks.
Props to choreographer Michael Tarchala. He made the kids dance! They danced well! Really well to Doe a Deer! Sara Wegener did great with the Costume design, highlights of which were the von Trapp children's play-clothes, made out of the curtains from Maria's bedroom, and Maria's lovely wedding dress.
As for my dad, every time I have seen him since Saturday, he's been humming How Can Love Survive. Chris Tracy and Kristen Marietta, you are Dick O'Neill approved for the Max and Elsa numbers.
The Sound of Music teaches us that we do have to climb mountains in our own life. Getting the kids to pass their classes. Obeying protocol for COVID for putting on a play. Learning to manipulate Zoom and Google Meets. And yeah, I'll say it- this play is timely, because COVID is like NAZI Germany itself. It preys on everyone. It's made life dangerous. Eidelweiss, the last song before going into hiding, reminds me of our putting on Once Upon a Time and Very Far Away A Cinderella Story at Lewistown on March 13th and 14th, 2020. No idea when we could come back out to the stage again. No idea when it was safe to return. And this mountain is being climbed, much as the Allies made a beach head at Normandy, and charted a course towards Berlin, we are climbing a mountain as well, one vaccination, one hand sanitizer pump, one nasal swab, one temperature check, one mask at a time. It is fitting that The Sound of Music rounds out the return to theatre for me of 2021.
Four stars.