An authoritarian leader casts a dark shadow across the land, employing intimidation to silence dissent while too many citizens stay quiet and hope for the best. If there’s a better analog for the state of America right now than 1938 Austria on the eve of the German anschluss, I can’t think of what it might be.
So it’s incredibly timely to have the timeless musical The Sound of Music come to Broadway in Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre on national tour, dispensing lessons in resiliency, hope and moral courage along with a Rodgers & Hammerstein score packed with classic crowd-pleasers.
The story of Maria, a spirited young woman who takes leave from the convent to become governess to the seven Von Trapp children and love interest to the naval hero Captain Georg von Trapp as the Nazis seize power, is a familiar one, but when the swastika flags unfurl onstage behind them during the music festival they’re performing in, it hits a little too close to home.
Which brings more focus than usual to Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s smart book and its clear-eyed focus on the stark choice between quiet collaboration and courageous defiance. Kevin Earley’s Georg is a man with a disciplined military mind but a compassionate heart. The love that blooms between him and Cayleigh Capaldi’s Maria rings true despite their age difference.
Capaldi turns in a lovely performance, highlighting Maria’s tenderness and soul searching while delivering the big songs–“The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”–with strong, clear, refreshingly unadorned vocals supported by a fine 14-piece orchestra that drew a deserved round of applause for its entr’acte at Wednesday’s opening.
Also classic: the set, which demonstrates that a series of top-notch scrims can hold their own against any number of garish projections.
It adds up to nearly three hours of satisfying old-school entertainment that makes one wish we had more Von Trapps and fewer Max Detweilers and Elsa Schraeders among us these perilous days.
The Sound of Music runs through November 2 at the Nederlander Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Jeremy Daniel
