Why Have We Only Had One Broadway Revival of THE SOUND OF MUSIC? — Page 2

I would love to see a revival direct by Sher. Laura Osnes as Maria. Cheyenne Jackson as Von Trapp. Audra McDonald as Mother Superior. Lea so Logan as baroness. Norm Lewis as max.


a full lush set and orchestrations. Would all be sublime

As iconic as the movie is, I've always preferred the stage version. The stagebound claustrophobia adds to the sense of political menace, and raises the stakes...and the Max and Elsa numbers stir the pot even further. I don't dislike the movie, but in my dreams it would have been directed by Billy Wilder...or Alfred Hitchcock!

This is so timeless/timely!

I just said, to a friend of mine today, that I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up tomorrow to news of a new revival starring Billy Porter as Maria!

Nothing will beat the revival in 1973 when Cher played Maria and Sonny played Von Trapp!

I remember reading the Times review of the Sound of Music after Laura Benanti had taken over the role of Maria. I cringed when the reviewer wrote that the show was better with the younger woman in it. I thought that it must have hurt Luker to read that. I guess Broadway people never get hardened against criticism?


if and when someone does try another stage production of the Sound of Music, I think that is the direction that they should go. Don’t try to find someone who can play the role of Maria like Julie Andrews, but try to find a fresh face who can bring a different perspective to the role. I think that Alan Cummings succeeded in re-creating the role of the MC in a manner separate but equal to Joel Gray.

Sher will be too busy on the centennial production of Show Boat to work on anything else. Doing a production of that musical is a great challenge since there are so many songs to choose from, and different directions for the second act plot to follow. Might be pretty tough putting that musical on the Beaumont stage.


And Bartlett also has the lush 10th anniversary concert production of Bridges of Madison County.

(yeah, I would be the last one to have any inside information.)

For a show like this, the real money is to be made on the road. So if there is a Broadway revival of it, I would not expect that until about 10 years after the last tour ended its non-Eq run.

I don't know how much tampering should be done with the book and musical arrangements (if any), but a lot of productions cannot balance the darkness and the levity –– they don't go hard enough with the jubilant numbers, but they also don't go dark enough with the Nazis and the rise of fascism. Someone like John Tiffany or Bartlett Sher or Michael Arden could maybe do something interesting with the piece. I agree that no stage production will be able to capture the majesty and scale of the film –– but perhaps the issue with the stage show is it's done too literally. And maybe it needs an actress who can totally depart from the vocal stylings of Andrews & Martin.

A few things that annoy me:
1) Elsa is not a Baroness in the stage production, and I have been to too many productions of SOM that refer to her as such in the program!
2) The stage show has a weak opening. We start with the nuns singing Rodgers' Catholic durge, and then we get into a version of the title song that's more wistful than what people know from the movie. And then we get "Maria," a lengthy book scene, and then a stately rendition of "My Favorite Things" all before she even leaves the abbey. The movie is able to use the choral piece to set the tone of the abbey after that thrilling opening sequence and helicopter shots.
3) The first act is SO LONG, ending with "Climb Every Mountain" (unlike the movie which places that right after the intermission). It's a thrilling end to the act, but by then the audience is restless.
4) The Captain and Elsa's relationship is more interesting on screen. Elsa's more political in the stage show. I love the two songs for Max & Elsa in the musical, but Elsa is also far less conniving onstage (Brigitta, not Elsa, is the one who convinces Maria to return to the abbey because the Captain loves her).

Updated On: 7/19/22 at 01:47 AM

BwayLB said: "I thought Edelweiss was done best when sung twice instead of only one time at the near end."

imho in the movie it's a bit repetitive, but also becomes a crucial moment to show the evolution of the Captain & Maria's relationship

The production value of the recent tour was outstanding, one of the best outside of Wicked for a touring show I felt. I was constantly surprised they could tour with that set. That was my main takeaway, the set. Nothing about the piece, even if I found it well acted/sung.


I think that’s what this show is now, tour every decade or so in some capacity so people like my parents and go and see them play the hits. No need for a broadway revival.

I'd like to see Laura Benanti do it as a one-woman show, a la Cher's bizzare West Side Story.

Despite it being a rather staid and frumpy show, Dame Julie Andrews sells the role of Maria as a credible manic pixie dream girl: she’s classy while remaining a little strange and earthy. And in her own androgynous way, she manages to make Maria kind of sexy. Which is a hard task playing a woman-child nun just shy of Peter Pan territory.

The legend of the Dame has eclipsed her actual self and acting persona to some extent: she was the brilliant soprano and the poised Mary Poppins incarnate, but Julie was known for balancing it with a streak of mischief, a bawdy sense of humor and a famously foul mouth. If you’re going to have a worthwhile Maria and a worthwhile sound of music, you need a performer who can make Maria believably idiosyncratic. She has become so familiar, so traditional, that we forget that she’s canonically a weirdo.

joevitus said: "For the record, even Mary Martin was criticized behind the scenes for being too old for the part. I agree with you about a fresh face that doesn't attempt to replicate Julie Andrews."

I believe Hammerstein (before he died) and Rodgers even agreed that it needed a younger Maria, which is why they always cast a woman in her 20s/early 30s after that (Florence Henderson, Andrews, etc). Martin got away with it, but the character could not be in her 40s perpetually.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "BwayLB said: "I thought Edelweiss was done best when sung twice instead of only one time at the near end."

imho in the movie it's a bit repetitive, but also becomes a crucial moment to show the evolution of the Captain & Maria's relationship"

Might have a point on that!

OlBlueEyes said: "Now I’d like to hear that recording. I wonder if they kept the two adult songs that the film through out."

Its available on CD and Download - and yes, "How Can Love Survive" was in it, not 100% Sure about "No Way to Stop it", which is the darker of the two songs.

From an old BroadwayWorld post "The 1981 production had an on stage cast of 61. The pit orchestra was no less than 21." - Heavens