SOUND OF MUSIC tour cast announced

Brown, Davis lead SOUND OF MUSIC tour

Anderson will be joined by Ben Davis as Captain Georg von Trapp andAshley Brown as The Mother Abbess with Merwin Foard as Max Detweiler, Teri Dale Hansen as Elsa Schraeder, Dan Tracy as Rolf and Paige Silvester as Liesl. The von Trapp children will be played by Erich Schuett (Friedrich), Maria Knasel (Louisa), Quinn Erickson (Kurt), Svea Johnson (Brigitta), Mackenzie Currie (Marta) and Andrey Bennett (Gretl).

The ensemble includes Carey Rebecca Brown, Ron Brown, Caitlin Burke,Christopher Carl, Kyla Carter, Austin Colby, Daniella Dalli, Elisabeth Evans, Donna Garner, Meghan Hales, Adam Hill, Jenavene Hester, Jeremy Lanuti, Darren Matthias, Kelly McCormick, Julia Osborne, Andrea Ross, Brent Schindele and Jim Schubin.

"Ashley Brown is Mother Abbess? Whaaaa?? "

I am a fan of Brown's but she is way too young for this part. She should have played Maria instead. I was an expecting someone like Judy Kaye or a former Carlotta from Phantom of the Opera for Mother Abbess.

So Patricia Neway had just turn 40 when she originated the role on Broadway in 1959.

I'd rather see Ashley Brown as Maria. I have no doubt her Climb Every Mountain will be gorgeous, but what a waste of her talents.

In the same way that some actors read younger than they actually are on stage (like Jose Llana in The King and I), Ashley sometimes reads older than she is on stage. Plus, who knows what type of make-up they would do on her.

"I can't imagine it would be historically accurate to have a Mother Abbess in her early 30s at a 1930's Austrian abbey."

Accuracy hasn't been a theatrical priority for simply ages. I mean, does anyone think it was historically accurate to have a black Mother Superior in her early 40s?

""I can't imagine it would be historically accurate to have a Mother Abbess in her early 30s at a 1930's Austrian abbey."
Accuracy hasn't been a theatrical priority for simply ages. I mean, does anyone think it was historically accurate to have a black Mother Superior in her early 40s?"

Not to mention the number of historical inaccuracies that are just part of the script itself, no matter how casting goes, such as the time frame of when Maria came to the family, when they left Austria, and the fact that crossing those mountains on foot would have landed them squarely in Germany and not Switzerland.

Was just wondering where the heck she's been. She was riding that Disney paycheck hard. But then she just disappeared.

""Ashley Brown is Mother Abbess? Whaaaa?? "
Yes she is far to young
Victoria Clark???
and why not a Broadway run instead of a tour? is this the version they did at Open Air or the other one when they did a reality show???
"

Victoria Clark is not going to go out on a SETA tour in a small supporting role with one big song.

More on the "real story" of Maria and the von Trapp family:

Maria was orphaned at the age of 7. At 18, she graduated from a teachers' college, then entered the abbey as a postulant. Three years later (age 21), she was sent to teach the youngest von Trapp daughter (the mother had died the year Maria entered the abbey), and eventually began taking care of the other children as well.

After about a year, the Captain, 25 years older than Maria, asked her to marry him. She did (she stated in her memoirs that she didn't love him, but learned to later) in November 1927. She bore their first child three months after the wedding. She later tried to alter that child's birth date to 1 year later, but official documents show otherwise. So, clearly, the master of the house was diddling the governess, knocked her up, and had to marry her.

7-8 years later (1935), the Captain lost his money, having transferred it from a stable London bank to a failing Austrian one run by a friend. When the money was gone, they rented out most of their house to students.

Maria didn't teach the children to sing; that was done by Franz Wasner, a priest and friend of the Captain. The family began singing at concerts to help bring money in to the impoverished family.

In 1938, the family moved to Italy (by train, not hiking over mountains), then sailed to the US in 1939, where they stayed.

Victoria Clark would have been a wonderful as the Abbess, but Ashley could be a novice herself in that convent.

I saw Davis as Papermill; he was fantastic.

And yes, the real story is quite different. The breakdown of the kids is different, for one, and I assume it was changed to add the Lisel subplot.