THEATRE REVIEWS: The Sound of Music
Highly Recommended
lately, in an effort to open up the Musical Theater to the Opera fans of Chicago, the Lyric has added one major musical to its season. They are the classics and the music of these big Broadway musicals is even more powerful as played by the Lyric Orchestra, conducted by Rob Fisher. This year, it is “The Sound of Music” with music by Richard Rodgers and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The book, inspired by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp was written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is the amazing story of Maria Trapp, a young novice who was asked to leave the Abbey and become the Governess for a family in Austria, a family led by a widower, Captain Von Trapp and his 7 children. Most everyone knows the story and of course the wonderful music that came from this work.
The movie version was a huge success and brought the story and the music to many people who have never attended the theater. There were some alterations and changes made to the movie version and of course, in a movie, one can re-shoot scenes over and over and as my grandson says, cut and paste to make it near perfect. Live, on a stage, this is not the case. Each performance must be as good as the last and if possible even better. The lavish production now on stage at The Lyric is by far as good or better than any other I have witnessed ( and I have seen over 16 productions, not counting those I appeared in) and is worth the price of admission for this glorious experience.
