Sound of Music at The Hollywood Bowl this summer will star...- Page 3

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 1:26pm

I'm surprised there's no coverage from the BWW LA reporters yet. I was hoping for a review and some photos from the Saturday press night performance.

Anybody?

lc

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 2:36pm

So am I!

[trikaraokeidol]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 2:42pm

I saw it on Friday. Errico was the bore she usually is. The only excitement from her was during THE LONLEY GOATHERD which she did very well. But I'm guessing that is because technically she does fine. I just didn't believe her as Maria and the opening number was a very lost opportunity for her to win her audience over. Marni was great although reaching. Since it was billed as a semi-staged reading the lines-forgetting was fine with me. John Schneider was a surprise -- I liked him! - but the evening's best number goes to David Larsen and Andrea Bowen. 16 Going on 17 ended up being the first real spark of the night. That spark continued with Rachel York and Jeffrey Tambour. I kept wishing Rachel would have sang the Sound of Music instead of Errico. That would have been amazing!!

The orchestra sounded beautiful -- the strings and Mauceri's introduction were sublime!!

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 3:14pm

Seems like John is always surprising people. I actually first saw him in a dramatic role, so that's what I'm used to, but people who remember him best as Bo Duke (I'm guessing that's the case for you?) tend to be caught off guard!
Updated On: 7/31/06 at 03:14 PM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 7:16pm

To answer your queston about the sets, there really was none. Three platforms and a couple props came on and off. The hills were made up of some abstract white clothes (not the right word, but that is what they looked like) in the background.

[jwsel]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 1:32am

On Saturday, they had a couple of different cameras set up, including one in the center just behind the first section of boxes that did not seem to be a camera they were using for the video monitors. I was curious if they might be planning to broadcast the concert at some point.

As for the staging, I thought having Maria start off in the audience was an effective choice. The "sets" for lack of a better word were typically a few pieces of furniture -- patio chairs and table for the outside of the Von Trapp house, a bed for Maria's room, a desk and chairs for the Mother Abbess' office, etc. It had the feel of a semi-staged reading.

The one thing that didn't really work -- though I don't know how they could have done it otherwise -- was that the Von Trapp family exited during Climb Every Mountain by going through the orchestra and up a ramp through the back of the stage. Though that was supposed to represent them climbing the same mountain that Maria had come down from in the beginning, they actually went in the exact opposite direction. The opening "mountain" was in the middle of the audience so it would have been nice if they Von Trapps had somehow gone in that general direction before exiting. A minor nit, I know, but there is some value in consistency.

I personally thought Mauceri's introduction rambled a lot. However, one thing that came across is that Sound of Music has a lot of meaning for him. He saw it on Broadway the day that Hammerstein died. Every time the camera showed him while conducting, he was grinning from ear to ear. Given that this is his last year with the Bowl, I wouldn't be surprised that this production was his brainchild. It really came across as a labor of love.

"mountain" that Maria had come down from in the opening

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 9:57am

Ooh, wouldn't it be great if it were to be aired on PBS or something like that!

Thanks for the details about the "set." Kind of like the idea of using the amphitheater's natural slope for the mountains.

lc

[americanboy99]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 10:03am

I wish they could come up with sort of a new revival for this one. I prefer the new songs and switching of some songs in the revival, but I prefer the book of the revival much better. Rachel York is a perfect choice for Elsa. That's all I have to say. But still, I think for example the children's first line up in the original script is much more comic than the revival.

"I'm Friedrich. I'm 14. I'm a boy." is totally better than "I'm impossible."

Just my opinion.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 10:18am

Seeing it on PBS would be a dream come true! Don't want to get my hopes up, though.

Here are two more articles. The first one mostly talks about Melissa, the second one mostly about John.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/rave/articles/3440756.html

http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/2006/07/hollywood_bowl_.html

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 11:23pm

Just curious if anyone else saw this and had anything more to say about how it was.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 9:00am

Well, it took a while, but there are finally some photos available of the actual production. Marianne Muellerleile (who from the looks of things played the housekeeper) has them on her site. There are pictures of Melissa, John, the kids, and one or two others, but sorry, Rachel fans, I couldn't find any of her.

http://www.mariannemuellerleile.com/HTML/CareerPhotos.html