The film of this show is so ingrained in my mind that I really wanted to find a different version of The Sound of Music to consider. Since I'm at my parents' home for Father's Day weekend, I've fired up their old turn table and put on the thirty-three-and-a-third cast album. If you don't know what 33-1/3 refers to, I don't want to know you.
Did anyone other than Mary Martin originate two R&H roles? If so, I can't think of them. Maria would have been after Nellie in South Pacific, and it's interesting to think that both characters are rather innocent of the wider world, while being thrust into it. Ms. Martin makes a very different Maria than Julie Andrews--at least as this recording and the photos included in the fold-out album cover convey. Martin is less crystalline, slightly more adult, and does a whole lot of portamento singing that I don't remember Ms. Andrews using in the film.
SOM was the first musical I was ever in, as a 9th-grader. "I'm Friedrich. I'm fourteen. I'm a boy." Yes, I was the von Trapp's oldest son and La in the solfege line-up. What a great first show for a kid to be in. Not only was I rehearsing and performing at the Senior High School, while still being in Junior High School, but the children are front and center most of the time on stage and sing some very fun and challenging music. But you always have your six stage brothers and sisters with you, so you don't have to carry a lot on your individual shoulders.
Oh, Lord, my father is setting up the slide projector for the umpteenth viewing of some trip or family reunion or other. Maybe you can't go home again, but you will see the photos again and again.
Sound of Music
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
Opened in 1959
Cast: Mary Martin, Patricia Neway, Theordore Bikel, Marion Marlowe, Kurt Kaznar
Did anyone other than Mary Martin originate two R&H roles? If so, I can't think of them. Maria would have been after Nellie in South Pacific, and it's interesting to think that both characters are rather innocent of the wider world, while being thrust into it. Ms. Martin makes a very different Maria than Julie Andrews--at least as this recording and the photos included in the fold-out album cover convey. Martin is less crystalline, slightly more adult, and does a whole lot of portamento singing that I don't remember Ms. Andrews using in the film.
SOM was the first musical I was ever in, as a 9th-grader. "I'm Friedrich. I'm fourteen. I'm a boy." Yes, I was the von Trapp's oldest son and La in the solfege line-up. What a great first show for a kid to be in. Not only was I rehearsing and performing at the Senior High School, while still being in Junior High School, but the children are front and center most of the time on stage and sing some very fun and challenging music. But you always have your six stage brothers and sisters with you, so you don't have to carry a lot on your individual shoulders.
Several songs from the show's score were left out in the film, and it was nice to hear the funny "How Can Love Survive" and "No Way to Stop It" again--although the later song has the unfortunate association of turning a blind eye to Nazism. I had forgotten the duet "Ordinary Couple", replaced in the film with "Something Good", which is a better and more interesting song, I think.
Oh, Lord, my father is setting up the slide projector for the umpteenth viewing of some trip or family reunion or other. Maybe you can't go home again, but you will see the photos again and again.
Sound of Music
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
Opened in 1959
Cast: Mary Martin, Patricia Neway, Theordore Bikel, Marion Marlowe, Kurt Kaznar
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