Would love to see a Sound of Music Revival — Page 2

As written in the musical, Maria is certainly more of a MPDG that most other R&H protagonists, though the comparison is obviously not 1:1 (Wikipedia definition here; "a young woman love-interest with eccentric personality quirks" does describe Maria). She has to be an impulsive, motormouth flibbertigibbet with a dislike for rules and authority, and she is at a crossroads in her life where she doesn't know WHAT she wants to do, she just knows it needs to be Something Better Than This.

She's a lowercase-L liberal personality in a world of lowercase-C conservative people.

Maria's edges have become sanded off over the years. I would love to see an actress who could bring a Bernadette Peters/Meg Ryan/Barbra Streisand/Sutton Foster energy to the role, even if that energy doesn't land 100% of the time. Julie Benko? Ashley Park? Micaela Diamond? Solea Pfeiffer? Shereen Pimentel? Auliʻi Cravalho? Rachel Zegler? Eva Noblezada? Adrienne Warren? Helen J Shen? Alyse Alan Louis? Helene Yorke (probably a little too old now)? Some of the WAITRESS Jennas?

Updated On: 7/16/24 at 11:35 AM

joevitus said: "How does anyone listen to/look at photographs of Mary Martin in the original production and read anything like "manic pixie dream girl"? How can one say her "edges have been sanded off" if that is the starting place? It's absurd."

Because the role is not playing Mary Martin, it's playing a fictional character named Maria Rainer (who bears little resemblance to the real-life Maria Rainer). R&H themselves conceded that Mary was too old for the role and wanted it to be played by a younger woman after that.

Luckily, no meaningful number of people will be comparing a hypothetical portrayal to the memory of Mary Martin, since a miniscule number of living people saw her two-year run as Maria; most people will be going off the performance of Julie Andrews in the movie, and the (often boring) portrayal in other revivals and regional productions.

Times and the role of women have also changed since 1959 and audiences expect something different now than they did in 1959, even if you may be stuck in 1959.

I liked the Laura Benanti production but have no memory of how she played the role. Obviously she was youthful, but doubt she was a manic pixie.

Who says they have to be far apart in age? Andrews was 29 and Plummer was 35.

And remember, she falls for his children before she falls for him.