Why wasn’t Rebecca Luker nominated for her Maria in The Sound of Music? — Page 2

Musicaldudepeter said: "In the original production, the curtains parted and Mary Martin travelled down stage while perched on a tree branch. There, still and contemplative, she sang The Sound of Music, a hymn to nature and music. Listen to the original Broadway cast album and you'll hear how much she gets out of the song."

I've heard it, and seen photos from that. It's an interesting take, because it flips the "Problem Like Maria" on its head to some extent... the Maria we see in private there is a gentle, contemplative soul, almost a poet. She's not a flibbertigibet, will-o-the-wisp or clown, she's simply "not like the other nuns" because she doesn't belong there, and they're sensing an ideological conflict more than a behavioral one.

Contrast that with the film's characterization of Maria, where she's running, spinning and dancing, overwhelmed with awe and an almost orgasmic bliss at nature's majesty. This girl IS an uninhibited free spirit who would clash with the strictures of an abbey. She's quirky, she's an early example of the "manic pixie dream girl" archetype, albeit a more positive one. ("I Have Confidence" also lends itself to the endearing-oddball characterization.)

MadsonMelo said: "I've seen TSOM two times in Brazil and while interesting, the movie musical is absolutely better.

It's just a musical that the scope of visuals serves up way better than the stage, and also Andrews is so definitive as Maria, but I look forward to see the LCT revival."

It is VERY difficult not to watch the show through the lens of the movie. I think this is exacerbated by the fact that nowadays we don't really accept stage sets attempting to mimic natural settings, making the opening scene in particular difficult to present convincingly (it's interesting that Lincoln Center's South Pacific changed the location of the opening scene from outide to an interior space). But it's also that Ernest Lehman's screenplay is a huge improvement over the Lindsay and Crouse book.

That said, I think it's a big mistake to attempt recreating the fllm version onstage, and an equally big mistake for actressess to mimic Andrews (which the NYT claimed Luker occasionally did). Stage and screen versions just have to be accepted as different entities.

Updated On: 6/26/26 at 08:12 PM

I really enjoyed this production when I saw it with Rebecca Luker. It was my first time seeing the Broadway SOUND OF MUSIC. I’d only seen the movie prior to this.

The production with Luker was very nice…but the first time the show “wowed” me was when I saw it in London at the Palladium; the 2006 production.

I’ve posted about this here before (I don’t have the time to find it), but in the Palladium production, when the Trapp family was about to sing at the Salzburg Festival, the Nazi banners dropped down the side walls of the entire theatre. It was a bone-chilling theatrical moment that I will never ever forget.