Newsday
March 13, 1998
This Musical Is Safe and `Sound'
THEATER REVIEW: The Sound of Music. Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Directed by Susan H. Schulman, choreographed by Michael Lichtefeld, musical direction by Michael Rafter, set by Heidi Ettinger, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Paul Gallo. Martin Beck Theatre, 302 W. 45th St. Seen at Tuesday preview.
By AILEEN JACOBSON
Rebecca Luker and kids sing "Do-Re-Mi" in "The Sound of Music." (Ari Mintz/Newsday)
YOU KNOW those Hallmark commercials where the card recipients sneak a peek at the back to be sure they've received the very best?
You can't flip a musical on its back, but the new Broadway revival of "The Sound of Music," presented by Hallmark, comes with its own imprimaturs.
The material itself has hit stamped all over it -- hit stage musical, mega-hit movie, star video. Moreover, this production comes with the impressive credentials of its directing and design team, along with reports of their attempts to re-create some of the real feel of the 1930s and impending Nazi doom.
But take a look at what you're getting and it's, well . . . nice. Prettily sung, respectably mounted, solidly acted. But it's rarely thrilling, and not at all threatening, despite the addition of huge Nazi banners, not used in the original 1959 version, in the escape scene.
It's good family entertainment, what with the many sweet, familiar tunes and the passel of children. It's a paler cousin to the splendid revival of "The King and I," another Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, which recently closed. Both shows have loads of kids and a romantic dance sequence for the central couple, but the one set in Siam had more darkness and edge.
Still, it's too easy for a critic to sneer at "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens," which sounds like a greeting-card homily, and to dismiss the musical's enormous audience appeal. It's also too easy to compare any revival -- and this is the first to reach Broadway -- to the wonderful 1965 movie, which had both Julie Andrews as the impish "moonbeam" Maria Rainer, sent by her convent to care for the seven children of the widower Captain Georg von Trapp, and the real Alps.
Fresh-faced and full-voiced (but somewhat wooden), Rebecca Luker makes a winning Maria. She sings in a mellower register than did Andrews, so her opening number -- the title song -- has a muted quality. That slightly muffled, less-than-exuberant tone has already been established by director Susan H. Schulman in the first scene. It starts with the sound of bells at the Nonnberg Abbey (which reportedly were recorded in Austria) and the bell-like singing of nuns as they gather on stage for a "Preludium."
The sets, by Heidi Ettinger, who worked with Schulman on "The Secret Garden," also reflect the dampened approach. After the witty curtain (which contains a surprise I won't reveal) rises, we see a dreary-looking abbey and drab-looking Alps, painted on transparent scrims and purposely made to look stage-set artificial.
Even the von Trapp home isn't so grand, and -- most disturbing -- those huge Nazi banners, which fill the height of the stage, don't bring out the gasps they should. This is largely because the Nazi menace, as embodied by a few stiff-armed but ineffectual officials, has been presented in a comic-operetta style. Director Schulman hasn't found a way to transcend the script's limitations, or bring urgency to the moral crisis that it does explore.
On the other hand, there is much to admire. Patti Cohenour, despite her relative youth, brings a gentle gravity to her role as the Mother Abbess, who guides Maria through her doubts about leaving the religious life after she falls in love with the Captain. Along with the other featured nuns, who are very funny (three of whom disconcertingly appear later as a dirndled singing group), she wonders comically what to do about Maria. Then she sings "Climb Every Mountain" as though it were new, which is quite a feat.
Sixteen-year-old Sara Zelle is also impressive as the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" eldest daughter, Liesl, struggling with first love and a boyfriend who starts wearing a swastika. Ryan Hopkins as the older son and Tracy Alison Walsh as the wise-beyond-her-years Brigitta stand out, too.
As a group, though, these kids come off as overly cute, in a studied sitcom way. They're meant to be charming, of course, as they sing "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things," "So Long, Farewell" and "The Lonely Goatherd." One is grateful for the more sarcastic songs, "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It," both of which were dropped from the movie. (This production adds two of the movie songs, including "I Have Confidence," but drops "An Ordinary Couple," as did the film.)
"How Can Love Survive?" is sung by Captain von Trapp's initial love interest, the worldly and sophisticated (but not motherly) Elsa Schraeder, beautifully portrayed by Jan Maxwell, and the smarmy concert promoter Max Detweiler (a bubbly Fred Applegate). Hammerstein's lyrics are delightful as they wonder how Schraeder and von Trapp can be happy if they're not poor: "Trapped in our capital gains are we."
In "No Way to Stop It," the Elsa-Max duo, who represent generally honorable people willing to "bend a little," try to persuade von Trapp to go with the flow of the Nazi invasion. He'll have none of it, which leads to the flight of his family from Austria and the beginning of a legend.
As the heroic Captain, Michael Siberry, a Shakespearean actor making his Broadway musical debut, is neither as sexy as the movie's Christopher Plummer (who didn't do his own singing) nor as strong-voiced as the stage original's Theodore Bikel must have been. Siberry also doesn't strike many sparks with Luker. But he has a pleasant baritone and a handsome, authoritative presence. Like the production as a whole, he's a Captain you can respect but not swoon over.
Copyright 1998 Newsday Inc.
