The Vancouverist
  • Home +
    • contact
  • Interviews - news
    • more interviews - news
  • Theatre
    • more theatre
  • Film
    • more film
  • Music
    • more music

The Sound of Music

9/14/2017

 
Picture
​Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music is as fresh, and in many ways relevant, today as it was when it first graced the big screen. 
A family struggling to survive in a world gone mad with oppression finds a way, with a little help from some friends, to etch out a life on their own terms.
For those unfamiliar with the premise, The Sound of Music is set in 1938 Austria at the height of Nazi oppression at a time when saying no to the subjugators often meant the death squad for you, your family, and friends.
The tale is a bold tour de force that highlights a personal journey with stakes as high as they get, even more impactful once you understand it is based on a true story.
Georg von Trapp was indeed a captain in the Austrian navy. Not only did he decline a naval command, as depicted in the musical, but he also refused to fly the Nazi flag, and turned down a request to sing at Hitler’s birthday party; a slight that most certainly did not go unnoticed. Instead of bowing to the dictatorship, von Trapp uprooted his family, left their home and all their possessions behind, and set out for a better life. The musical is, of course, a somewhat more immediately dramatic version of events: the family travelled openly by train to America, via Italy and England, rather than fled secretly over the mountains to Switzerland, but it is a musical, not a biography and although the changes make for ease of story telling, they still allow for a foundation with which to emphasize the very real stresses and dangers of the time for many families unwilling to compromise their values.
 
That is a lot to pack into a two-hour musical, let alone pause to sing about specific points along the way. Having said that, directors Matt Lenz and Jack O’Brien manage to tell the story with elegance and flow that rhythmically hits every beat without overwhelming us.
The opening sequence with the nuns singing is hypnotic and even though Maria (the formidable Jill-Christine Wiley) has mic trouble, she is able to make her lovely voice heard with little effort.
The children are lovely and Wiley does an amazing job of staying on point while guiding the little ones through their paces. They are all professionals here. Little Brigitta (Katie Grgecic), as the voice of truth, is a bit of a scene-stealer but it is Mother Abbess’s (Lauren Kidwell) mesmerizing rendition of “Climb Every Mountain” that wows the crowd. When she hits that note (you know the one I am talking about) there is a palpable shift in the theatre as we gasp and awe. If ever a note could pull a tear from your eye… (worth the price of admission, or an hour of good therapy).
In direct contrast to the gasps of awe are the gasps of unease that later escape with the unfurling of four ceiling to floor Nazi banners. We are still acutely aware of what they represent then, as for current events. This moment provides an interesting transition in the show, where the audience, without enticement, ever so briefly steps into the role of active participant. When it is announced that the von Trapp family will sing again the crowd responds with a round of raucous applause as if they were actually there in the Salzberg theatre, rather than observing from the safe distance of a plush seat in the Queen Elizabeth theatre as they had been until this point. This is the only time the fourth wall is broken, and provides an interesting unconscious (or perhaps conscious) response to the events unfurling.
All in all there were only two small things to squeak about: the people standing in the wings were a little distracting, as were the short pillars on stage (to give a sense of depth perhaps?) at points in the show that resulted in visually upstaging the actors. Otherwise it was a fabulous show!
 
Click HERE for a link to tickets and information about the show.

Comments are closed.

    theatre/
    dance

    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    November 2010
    May 2010

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.