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Everett Herald
‘The Sound of Music’ will lift you up
By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Writer
McIntyre Hall is filling with “The Sound of Music” and “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss” continue to delight as enduring melodies against a backdrop of political and personal struggles that remain poignant today.
Lyric Light Opera presents this Rogers and Hammerstein masterpiece through this weekend. This company’s rendition is as pure as the Swiss mountain air. It’s tip-top family entertainment that will make your spirits soar.
This musical version includes all the ageless sing-along tunes with the addition of a not-so-familiar song excluded from the movie version.
This “Sound of Music” also has gorgeous scenery design by Christopher McCollum with a von Trapp house that was all blues and golds and gilded with a cascading spiral staircase (the scenery was originally designed and built for Utah Festival Opera Company).
Finally, there’s the gifted cast that includes a wonderfully spunky Maria Rainer and a noble Capt. Georg von Trapp, who is faced with leaving his beloved Austria with his seven children and Maria to escape the Nazis.
Maria was played by Cayman Ilika, making her stage debut with Lyric Light Opera but having recently been Julie in “Show Boat” with Village Theatre.
Ilika’s voice was absolutely stunning, a well-trained instrument that often produced goose bumps. Her spunk and chemistry with the talented Matthew Posner as the captain was spot on and their tender moment certainly touched a chord during “Something Good.”
Other standouts include Emily Purcell as Mother Abbess, delivering a downright spiritual version of “Climb Every Mountain,” and of course the von Trapp children, which included the three real off-stage sisters Natalie, Kristina and Anna Howell, with their fourth sister Sarah Howell playing a nun and a yodeler.
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424, goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Skagit Valley Herald
A ‘Sound’ message that’s still relevant
October 30, 2009
The “Sound of Music” cast includes (front row, from left) Abi Rinas and Anna Howell;
(middle row, from left) Kristina Howell, Cayman Ilika, Giselle Gudenkauf and Evan Griffin; and (back row, from left) Natalie Howell and Justin Youngquist.
If you ask Brenda Mueller, there’s nothing mushy and overly sentimental about the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music.”
Oh, yes, there’s the loving governess, the cute and plucky children, the moments of love and yearning.
But when it comes right down to it, “The Sound of Music” is a contrast of light and dark themes, of right and wrong, of love and hatred, and freedom and captivity.
“It’s really about freedom and finding the life you’re meant to have,” said Mueller, who is directing Lyric Light Opera’s production of one of the most popular musicals of all time Nov. 7-15 at McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon.
“It has a huge message that continues to be relevant today.”
Based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, the story follows the family — the widowed Captain Georg von Trapp and his seven children — and their governess, Maria, a nun, in pre-World War II Austria.
Maria eventually falls in love with the initially cold and stern Captain and his adorable children. They marry, and begin a new life happily until the Captain refuses to serve in the German Navy under Hitler’s command.
Knowing their days are numbered, the von Trapps head for the hills — literally — to escape the Nazis.
The story has everything — loyalty, faith, romance, suspense, an award-winning musical score, hope and love that always draws large audiences.
Lyric Light’s fall production of “The Sound of Music” includes everything the performing arts company has become known for since it was founded in 2006 — lavish sets, costumes, elaborate and complex dance numbers, and top-notch singers and actors from across the Puget Sound region.
And it’s being produced with a definite “holiday” theme, Mueller said. The backdrop for the large ball scene is full of holiday colors and spectacle, while the Austrian Alps are blanketed in snow.
Mueller said she’s sticking to the traditional script and storyline, but has made a few revisions she hopes will help flesh out the characters.
That’s especially true for the nuns, Mueller said. Instead of singing the famous “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” in the sterile church, the nuns sing in the kitchen. And the nuns are more involved with Maria’s wedding than in the original presentation, Mueller added.
“I wanted them to be more personalized, so the audience can relate to them more,” Mueller said.
She’s encouraged the cast to delve into their characters to convey their motivations and complex natures better for the audience.
Finding Maria was easy for Cayman Ilika of Seattle, who plays the energetic and kind woman who begins the musical as a sheltered girl and ends a wiser, more-responsible married woman. This is the second time she’s portrayed Maria onstage.
“I tried to stay true to who Maria is — over-the-top, excitable, and someone who loves passionately,” Ilika said. “She’s a lot like me, I guess.”
The same is true for Natalie Howell of Camano Island, who plays the Captain’s enthusiastic teenage daughter Liesl. Howell’s character sings one of the most popular songs of the show, “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.”
“I feel I have a connection with her,” Howell said. “I’m the oldest of a large family, and I understand that nurturing, mothering thing that she shows to her brothers and sisters.”
However, Howell said she’s trying to play Liesl more as a troubled teenager, and not so much like a coy stereotype of a teen girl of that era.
“I’m playing her a little less saccharine,” Howell said. “I’m not so much acting with her as living her.”
Digging the depths of the characters has been more of a challenge for others in the cast.
Emily Purcell of Seattle plays the Rev. Mother of the abbey where Maria is a postulate. The Rev. Mother is a fine line between stern authority and warm mothering. It’s not an easy line to walk, Purcell said.
“When we started to practice the lines, I was trying to come off really severe or serious,” Purcell said. “I had to really think about her character — she wasn’t always this way. She still has a sense of humor.”
And that’s the whole point of the play, Purcell said.
“It’s not a silly story, or the stereotyped musical,” Purcell said. “It has so much more depth.”
Want to go?
WHAT: Lyric Light Opera’s production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical “The Sound of Music.”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 7, 13 and 14; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Nov. 8, 14 and 15.
WHERE: McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon.
COST: $15-$38.
TICKETS, INFORMATION: 360-416-7727, ext. 2; 866-624-6897, ext. 2; http://www.mcintyrehall.org or http://www.lyriclightopera.org
Beverly Crichfield can be reached at 360-416-2135 or goffredo@heraldnet.com
Cascadia Weekly
Bellingham
The Sound of Music-Romance, nuns and the Third Reich
By Amy Kepferle · Wednesday, November 11, 2009
You know that scene in the film version of The Sound of Music where the oldest daughter, Liesl, is in a gazebo in the rain at night being sung to by her slightly older suitor, Rolf, who tells her he’s 17, going on 18, and that she “better beware, be canny and careful,” and then they have a first kiss and are delighted to be young and in love until a few plotlines down the road when she finds out he’s up and joined the Nazi Party?
Well, I haven’t dated a guy who ratted out my family to the Third Reich, but I have been in that very same gazebo. In fact, during a teenage backpacking jaunt through Europe, I spent the majority of my time in Salzburg, Austria, obsessing about the myriad characters from my favorite musical of all time. It was easy; the hostel we were staying at was near the public square Liesl and her six siblings learned to sing by “starting at the very beginning,” the proprietors of the hostel filmed the 1965 classic in its entirety every day in the common room, and the daylong Sound of Music tour—which was where we ended up traipsing through the benches in the gazebo used for filming—left right from the front door. I couldn’t not go.
What is it about the story of a gal named Maria who finds out her calling isn’t that of a pious nun but of a teacher, wife and mother that is so intriguing? Well, add in seven precocious children, a brooding, widowed captain, the threat of war, Nazis, a blonde bombshell who’s all wrong for the guy, a sneak named Rolf, and songs that are so memorable it’s impossible not to sing along once you know them, and I think that’s the answer.
Brenda Mueller, founder and executive director at Lyric Light Opera, says she chose the story of Maria and the Von Trapp family—who, as most people already know, actually existed—as her company’s fall production because of the themes that seem to hold true in the decades since the Von Trapp family came to the big screen.
“A lot of younger people don’t know the movie,” Mueller says. “They think the story is going to be sappy and sugary, but there are some wonderful dramatic themes about, among other things, finding your life’s calling. They’re also significant for our times. It’s one of the reasons I love to do the show.”
For those who haven’t yet seen a Lyric Light Opera production, Mueller says they’re in for a treat. Lavish sets, a cast of 45 and the pairing of professional actors with amateurs means audiences get to see a high-quality show for about half the price they’d pay in a bigger city.
“We hire leads from Seattle, Broadway, all over the place,” Mueller explains. “They sign a contract saying they’re willing to help less experienced actors in the process. We really push this.”
For those who’ve only seen the celluloid version of The Sound of Music—like me—Mueller suggests putting aside what you know about the story and focusing on the stage version.
“It’s a very moving interpretation,” Mueller says. “The storyline and music pretty much follow the movie, but the biggest difference, in my opinion, is that we’re talking about live theater, which has the ability to move people in a more human way. The emotion is bigger in live theater because there’s more potential for emotional involvement in the show. I guarantee that it’ll leave tears in your eyes.
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