The Sound of Music - The Muny

If this is what music sounds like, I don’t want to hear any more of it.

Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place, I hear, to start):

• Kate Baldwin (Maria) doesn’t have a very pretty voice, and she goes flat when she tries to hit the higher notes. Consequentially, her first big number (“The Sound of Music”) is a real let down. She also leaves me unimpressed about her going to the von Trapp villa in “I Have Confidence.” Be nervous, be excited, be something! Just don’t make me think you’re reciting your lines. Any five-year-old can do that in a WB sitcom.
• Robert Westenberg (Captain von Trapp) returns to the role he had five years ago, sadly. I liked him in My Fair Lady, and he’s done well on Broadway (in Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods), but here he doesn’t come off as much of a closed-off widower as he does a jackass. What’s to love about that?
• Leslie Denniston (the Baroness) has a beautiful voice that is sadly wasted on a role that has two horrid songs (“How Can Love Survive?” and “No Way to Stop It”). We’d all be better off if they were both cut, even if that meant that we couldn’t hear Ms. Denniston’s voice. Better, even, would be to dub her voice over Ms. Baldwin’s (à la Singin’ in the Rain).
• Brian Letendre (Rolf) is a great dancer, as he demonstrated last year in The Music Man. Sadly he can’t show it off because he’s playing opposite Tina “Two-Left-Feet” Maddigan (Liesl). Instead he’s stuck with a few silly moves designed to not make Ms. Maddigan look like a fool. I hardly think that’s the most creative solution to the problem, but perhaps The Muny should consider such factors in their future castings. Letendre is always welcome here, but Maddigan should stick to hosting dopey shows on the Discovery Channel.
• Jeanne Lehman (The Mother Abbess) doesn’t leave me with much of the emotion that her big song, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” should have. That’s a very powerful song when it’s sung well. Ms. Lehman’s voice isn’t as bad as Ms. Baldwin’s (not even close) but it really just doesn’t leave me with much feeling afterwards.
• The Muny Kids make an appearance, too, as village kids and alter boys and so forth. Let’s be honest about Muny Kids: they don’t sell tickets. What eight year old girl insists that she go see a show because there’s a bunch of kids in it she doesn’t know? The parents are more likely to see the shows anyway, and I discount the idea that kids really influence their parents much into going to the theatre. So does the Muny: patrons under 18 don’t have their ballots counted when tabulating surveys at the end of the season. Muny Kids might be a nice goodwill troupe, but they can’t really sing and dance like the older people on stage, and they risk straining their voices at a young age, which is really dangerous to those who really want to continue their dramatic “careers.”

The cast isn’t the only problem, however. The set isn’t the best the Muny has made, either. The cut-out Alps, sitting center upstage, look like the same ones used the last time the show was here. Worst of all is the von Trapp living room, painted a sorry shade of pale orange, with periwinkle blue paneling and saturated orange trim. I’m really not a fan of orange (I think it’s ugly) so using it as a base color for a huge set isn’t too pleasing for me. But beside that, it really doesn’t look stately. A cream or ivory color with the pale orange or periwinkle blue trim would have been beautiful, and it would have fit the color pallets frequently used in Central European churches and wealthy homes.

The orchestra pulls itself above these problems, as usual. Also, the Nuns’ Chorus is delightful to listen to. If only they were all there was to hear, this show would be worth the evening.