Ottawa is alive with The Sound of Music.
A brand new stage production of the enduring musical opened at the National Arts Centre Tuesday night.
The Sound of Music is loosely based on the real life of Maria von Trapp and the Trapp Family Singers.
The touring production is being hailed as a refreshing new take on what has become a very well-known story. It’s been 56 years since the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical first opened on Broadway, and 51 years since the release of the Academy Award-winning film version starring Julie Andrews.
“They’ve taken pieces of the movie, pieces of the various incarnations on the Broadway stage over the years, and melded them together,” says Teri Hansen, who plays the Baroness, Elsa von Schraeder. “So you’re going to hear brand new music that you’ve never heard before. You’re going to see the show in a different way.”
Different, but not too different. The show still features enduring standards like “The Sound of Music,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things,” and “Climb Every Mountain” among others. “The audience, you can feel them wanting desperately to sing along, and sometimes they do,” laughs Hansen.
The story takes place in Austria, just as it is being annexed by Nazi Germany prior to World War II. The touring production goes to great lengths to portray the period with enough staging, costumes and props to fill six trucks. As the Baroness, Hansen’s wardrobe includes hand-sewn replicas of clothing from some of the top fashion houses of the era. The props include a reproduction of an actual telegram from Hermann Goering to Adolph Hitler. “There was an excitement to take a new look at this and how to present it in perhaps the most authentic way it has ever been presented,” says Hansen.
Audiences can see for themselves. The Sound of Music runs April 12th to the 17th at the National Arts Centre.
