What is the Sound of Music?

The thing about seeing a musical play of something that a popular movie has been made is that you have the movie to compare everything to. But the play isn’t the movie. Things are staged differently. There are even different songs.
That was part of the impression I was dealing with in The Sound of Music at Starlight Theatre. But it wasn’t just the songs but the singers.
The actors were good. They acted the songs very well. There was a lot of good singing. But it wasn’t consistent. It was all good singing but it was a continual shift of classical and popular tones. The shifting was smooth but there.
You expect an almost boys’ choir purity when the children sing. They had a nice sound, but it didn’t have that piping tone. Kurt did have the high boy soprano note during So Long, Farewell. People really liked that.
There was a very cute scene you don’t get in the movie where the girls are headed back to their rooms during the thunderstorm and the older girls get scared and bail out on little Gretel, until she finally realizes she is all alone and flees back across the stage. Those scenes are what make the live performance worthwhile.

There were several good numbers by the Nuns, many of them a a capella, and done well. It took me awhile to realize when I liked them better than others.  You expect overtones in that sort of music — and they weren’t always there.  When they were, it was impressive.  But there were times they were missing.

With all I wrote so far, you might get the idea I didn’t like the show.  But it was a good show, quite moving. The story still worked its power, particularly with the way the actors acted the parts. Max and Baroness Schraeder did a wonderful job on ” How Can Love Survive” and “No Way to Stop It.” But they were the “modern” numbers. The singers were modern pop trying to do classic choral, and it was a mixed bag. While the captain was a superb actor, his voice left something to be desired.

They had a good cast of kids for acting. Liesel and Gretel in particular were show-stealers. But the musical numbers were just fun, not compelling.

It was a good show. But it seems odd to say that the acting was better than the singing in a show called “The Sound of Music.” But such was the case. I’d still recommend people go see it.