It’s axiomatic in the commercial theater that two shows always sell: “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Sound of Music.” Why? Both are beloved works of genius that are generous when it comes to human frailty and that get behind the importance of family. It’s as simple, and as hard to replicate, as that.
So, in my job in this busy theater town, I see those two titles once or twice each year, which means I’ve seen “The Sound of Music” literally dozens of times.
So why go back, as I did on Wednesday night, to see the latest cast of the perennial “Sound of Music” tour? Well, you wouldn’t ask an art critic why they are again standing in front of a Monet, would you? A masterpiece is a masterpiece and this one sings. Not only did I go, I sniffled my way through the entire thing. Again. Even though I had the sense it would all work out for Maria and the guy she had never met or even heard of, even though they live on the same mountain.
Actually, I mostly went because this remains the Jack O’Brien “Sound of Music,” a fabulous staging from an irreverently gifted director who has been around longer than the show itself. It’s not that this staging, which itself dates back at least a decade, is some font of innovation. Indeed, the physical production fits rather awkwardly into the Nederlander Theatre, which has a stage wider and deeper than the touring set, necessitating all kinds of black masking to fill the space and some weird little flip-turns by the Mother Abbess (Christiane Noll, no less). Every time she showed up in the cloisters, it was rather like she was on a moving sidewalk.
Nobody cared. It’s a human story and O’Brien always has injected all kinds of fresh life into this show with every new cast.
This time around, he has a delightfully nerdy Maria in Cayleigh Capaldi, forging the most charmingly geeky of novices, a Maria who now would play Dungeons and Dragons but whose naiveté when it comes to the sexy-sensitive vibes of moody Captain von Trapp feels entirely genuine. Capaldi’s scenes with the kids burst with vibrant life, as always has been the case with this tour.
Waiting in the wings, as the Oscar Hammerstein lyric goes, is Ariana Ferch, who really has forged an entirely different Liesl from what is customary, even in this production. Instead of the usual boring ingenue, Ferch’s character has sad eyes and a worried face, as if she knows that this clumsy Rolf (Ian Coursey) is no good for her from the beginning. It’s an incredibly interesting performance in an often blandly performed role that rarely commands that quality; O’Brien, who has not handed off this show to an assistant, clearly sees that, and lets her be both separate from the rest of the kids and a desperate worrier about them. An introverted version of the extrovert Maria, you might say. Watch for Ferch’s name.
Chicago theatergoers will recognize the name of Kevin Earley, the son of the late Dyanne Earley, the former artistic director of the Marriott Theatre. As is customary with productions of this show in an era when mental health is more in focus, Earley focuses not on militaristic strictness, melted over time, but on the emotional blocks that have to be removed from a fundamentally decent man. Nerds are good at that. What matters is that you pull for the widower and the ill-suited nun with the guitar, and so you do. And, as a longtime Frau Schraeder watcher, I also appreciated how Kate Loprest built a character who figures out the topography of this particular mountain much more quickly than is traditional.
It’s easy to find the politics of the moment in “The Sound of Music,” as is the case with all of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. Be the morally absolute Captain, the show seems to say, not the go-along-to-get-along Max. It was far more complex in reality, of course, with the real Captain being considerably more tempted by the Nazi U-boats than the show implies; eventually, he found his courage and the family emigrated via train to Italy, not by climbing every mountain to Switzerland. But mythology is the brick on which great musicals are built.
I had the chance this summer to spend time with the real-life actors who played the kids in the 1965 movie version of “The Sound of Music” (they are no longer kids, of course, but very charming and humble adults). Even as Maria was singing in Chicago, those former child actors (who I am sure would be impressed by the current generation in this tour) were all in Salzburg, participating in a documentary with Hershey Felder and in the big 60th anniversary celebrations of the movie in that Austrian city. That’s happening this very week.
Austrians have good reason to love this show and the world-famous film it spawned; it bespeaks of a proudly patriotic level of resistance to the Anschluss and carefully avoids all mention of antisemitism in that nation, except for the slightest hint that Max, the promoter, is both Jewish and gay, as gently suggested by the actor Nicholas Rodriguez. As I wrote when I reviewed Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which suggests a very different history and set of actions by the Austrian establishment, “Sound of Music” did more not just for Austrian tourism than all the promotional campaigns in the world, “Edelweiss” and all, but also for Austria’s historical reputation.
None of that papering over of reality makes this wonderful musical any less enjoyable.
Have a young person who has never seen it? Take them to O’Brien’s staging, at once traditional and pulsing with human life.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Sound of Music ” (4 stars)
When: Through Nov. 2
Where: Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.
Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Tickets: $46-$197 at www.broadwayinchicago.com