Reviews 2015
Reviews 2015
✭✭✭✭✩
music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse, directed by Donna Feore
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
May 26-November 1, 2015
Maria: “I simply remember my favourite things”
For many people the 1965 movie version of The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer is the be-all and end-all of this musical. But for those who can bring themselves to see the musical on stage, the Stratford Festival’s current production will be about as close to ideal as you can get. Unlike Stratford’s previous production in 2001 of this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, the production does not seem to be set inside a volcano, the acting is more nuanced and all the characters who are meant to sing actually can sing. So much is right about the present production it’s hard to imagine a better one will come along.
A major advantage of the new production is the Captain von Trapp of Ben Carlson. He finds more depth and nuance in the role than any previous actor I’ve seen, including Christopher Plummer on film. Carlson intimates from his first appearance that the military strictness he uses to rule his children is an attempt to control the pain from a wound, namely the death of his wife. He shows in a wonderful way that even while the Captain is angry with Maria, he enjoys being angry with her. Unlike previous Captains, Carlson depicts the Captain’s softening and falling in love with Maria as inevitable. And, unlike Stratford’s previous Captain, Carlson can sing, bringing much emotion to the duet “Something Good” and to the final reprise of “Edelweiss”.
Robin Evan Willis makes Frau Schraeder a more nuanced character than is usually the case. Yes, she is self-obsessed and interested more in money than in the Captain, but she brings a touch of melancholy to handing back her ring to the Captain as if her stay with the Von Trapp’s had made her realize her own limitations. While Willis is excellent at playing the vamp, her full voice and sense of fun suggests that she would also make a fine Maria.
A problem always arises with the characters of Max Detweiler. His wittiness, egotism and concern for his appearance would mark him as a crypto-gay character in 1959. But should a director play this up or just make his affectations seem like those of people involved in show business. Director Donna Feore chooses the first path with the result that Shane Carty comes off rather like the cliché of the comic gay “uncle” figure whose line goes back to Franklin Pangborn (1889-1958) and continued through Paul Lynde (1926-1982).
The seven von Trapp children are all delightful. The romance between Liesl (Alexandra Herzog) and the postman Rolf (Gabriel Antonacci) is delicately romantic and comes to a startlingly intense conclusion. Within the von Trapp household Barbara Fulton makes the housekeeper Frau Schmidt a warm and sympathetic figure whom we suspect is the real power behind the Captain who, unlike her employer, keeps order with a velvet glove.
While Donna Feore’s direction of the action is admirably clear its most notable drawback is that it is very forward-facing as if the action were missing a proscenium. Only occasionally does she seem aware that the audience will be looking at the stage from more than the central two seating sections.
Feore’s hallmark is highly acrobatic choreography, but there is little place for it in the world of this music where the waltz is the most exciting dance form since Rodgers never includes a polka or galop in his dance music. Feore thus has to confine her athleticism to four male dancers who do handstands on the scenery they shift but who therefore appear out of place in the placid world of the play. Feore’s pas de deux for Rolf and Liesl around Michael Gianfrancesco’s wobbly-topped gazebo would be more successful if she didn’t try to incorporate every possible type of lift into the one dance, especially since so many of the lifts wind up exposing Liesl’s underwear – not exactly appropriate for the music of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”. For the important dance between the Captain and Maria, Feore requires far too much complicated armwork for what is meant to be a Ländler, a simple folk dance and precursor of the waltz. For the famous “Do-Re-Mi” number, Feore has Maria teach the children using the Kodály Method of hand signals for each note, a technique not known outside Hungary until 1958, and then only to specialists not country girls like Maria.
Where Feore has the most success is in the hilariously homoerotic Schuhplattler for four male dancers that is part of the final talent contest. She has the dancers not only slap their own and each other’s shoes, calves, thighs and faces but each other’s bums.
Designer Michael Gianfrancesco has created a versatile set that under Michael Walton’s lighting can easily transform itself from abbey to mansion to bedroom. His costumes well capture the time and place of the action as well as the nature of each character. He has great fun with the clothing Maria has made for the children from her bedroom drapes.
Under Feore’s direction, the structure of this familiar musical becomes clearer than ever. The private wounds within the von Trapp family begin to heal with the arrival of Maria just as the political wounds that will lead to World War II begin to open. Since The Sound of Music can be appreciated on so many different levels, enhanced by the delightfully subtle performances of Rothenberg and Carlson and of all seven children, this production is one of the must-sees of the Festival this year and would make an ideal family outing.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Alexandra Herzog, Sean Dolan, Effie Honeywell, Alec Dahmer, Graci Leahy, Sarah DaSilva, Zoë Brown and Ben Carlson; Ben Carlson and Stephanie Rothenberg; Alexandra Herzog and Gabriel Antonacci. ©2015 David Hou.
For tickets, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.
2015-06-11
The Sound of Music