29/03/2024

Music ae Amor

The Impeccable Music

This special ‘Sound of Music’ at Marriott Theatre knows the secret is in the kids – Chicago Tribune

This special ‘Sound of Music’ at Marriott Theatre knows the secret is in the kids – Chicago Tribune

The von Trapp kids are, of training course, critical to the achievement of any creation of “The Sound of Audio,” even if the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical totally erases their mom.

The “tea, a drink with jam and bread” brood has a tough go of it: a remote father, a prospective stepmother who turns out to be a Nazi sympathizer and, of course, last but not least a former nun named Maria who enjoys them all, even if she will come and goes and in no way asks them anything at all about their mother. That was not the story Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted to explain to — they ended up more fascinated in how a in the vicinity of-great younger girl could help save an emotionally repressed military guy, and hence his young ones, and consequently Austria itself.

You barely want me to point out the brilliance of this materials, which plays somewhere in Chicagoland every 12 months or so and hardly ever disappoints, possibly at the box workplace or the tear ducts. Director Nick Bowling’s new creation is unquestionably no exception.

But what I most appreciated about Bowling’s get the job done in this article is some clean tips for the clearly show, mainly concentrated on the kids, all of whom are excellent. For starters, he resists the temptation to solid an grownup Liesl, deciding upon rather an precise 16-year-outdated, Campbell Krausen, to share the popular duet with Rolf (Emmet Smith) and he choreographs that “Sixteen Heading on Seventeen” variety not as some Technicolor romance but as a fumbling, uncomfortable, geeky expression of adolescent angst. But extra significantly, check out the von Trapp little ones intently and you are going to see a whole lot of shared glances and frowns as the comings and goings of the grown ups bring about whipsaw modifications in the life of these kids. Most productions blow earlier that — Maria!, bye Maria!, Maria, you’re again! — but this just one does not. To its fantastic credit score.

This special ‘Sound of Music’ at Marriott Theatre knows the secret is in the kids – Chicago Tribune

Maria is played by Addie Morales, who is generating rather a identify for herself on the Chicagoland musical circuit. She’s obtained all you want for the role and then some. In this article, also, Bowling works with the character’s youth and inexperience. Primarily fantastic is the “Do, a deer” sequence, which showcases Morales’ massive vocal selection, has a ton of bravissimo exciting about it, and avoids the blandness of the Julie Andrews design that commonly permeates this character. (Not that Andrews was bland, but you know what I indicate.)

Erik Hellman, who performs the Captain, is not a good singer in the standard musical way, as I am guaranteed he’d attest. You don’t get some booming “Edelweiss” coming at you. But you do get a great actor, digging a lot more deeply into his guy’s first despair and implying that even as he falls in enjoy with Maria, he’s even now a perform in development. That is a different fascinating consider in this production.

The loved ones is surrounded by pros in Heidi Kettenring, who plays Frau Schraeder, and Rob Lindley as Max Detweiler, the self-loathing character R and H developed from all their advanced inner thoughts about Broadway producers. Daniella Dalli is the Mom Abbess, the show’s voice of God. All of that performs just high-quality.

But the strength of this production lies, as it must, in Maria and her kids. Those quantities, choreographed by William Carlos Angulo, pop with existence, honesty and pizazz, delighting the most more mature audience at the Marriott, which was grinning in the semi-darkness.

This is not generally a theater observed for scenic structure, offered the in-the-spherical configuration, but Collette Pollard, who has created some gorgeous vistas of mountains on the back wall, fusing various varieties of visuals, goes far outside of what is typical. It contributes greatly to the immersive good quality of the manufacturing.

So. This is a terrific “Sound of Music” to delight in with a kid, introducing them to the glory of stage musicals.

Just one very last detail, though: this creation seems frightened to use the notorious Nazi image, substituting benign pink armbands and also taking away most of the tension in the very last scene.

I’d just take note I sat inside of the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Residing Memorial to the Holocaust in New York the other night, viewing a production of Barry Manilow’s “Harmony,” developed by the Countrywide Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Stormtroopers and swastikas have been just about everywhere, a tribute to the resolve of that location and folks to notify the stories of what took place with veracity and not sugarcoat reminiscences. For all its loving optimism, there is a looming horror in “The Seem of Music” and it should really be there.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

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Critique: “The Seem of Music”

When: By means of June 5

Where: Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, 10 Marriott Way, Lincolnshire

Functioning time: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Tickets: $50-$60 (evening meal deals offered) at 847-634-0200 or marriotttheatre.com