Charlotte Maltby Stars in THE SOUND OF MUSIC Tour, Stopping at the Palace This March

The halls of the magnificent Palace Theater in Waterbury will be alive with The Sound of Music when the CT Premiere engagement of the beloved musical plays there March 7 - 12 for eight performances.

The production is part of the Webster Broadway series. Tickets can be purchased online at www.palacetheaterct.org, by phone at 203-346-2000, or in person at the Box Office, 100 East Main St. Before the Friday, March 9 performance, and after the Sunday, March 12 matinee performance, patrons are invited to join Verbena Catering for a four-course pre-fixe dinner in the theater's Poli Club. Dinner is $65 per person, which includes tax, service fees, coffee, and tea. Seating is limited, and reservations can be made when purchasing tickets through the Box Office.

This lavish new production of The Sound of Music is directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien.

Ben Davis (Broadway's Violet, A Little Night Music, La Bohème) will play Captain Georg von Trapp and Melody Betts will play The Mother Abbess with Merwin Foard as Max Detweiler, Teri Hansen as Elsa Schraeder, Austin Colby as Rolf and Paige Silvester as Liesl. The von Trapp children will be played by Roy Gantz (Friedrich), Ashley Brooke (Louisa), AUSTIN LEVINE (Kurt), Iris Davies (Brigitta), Kyla Carter (Marta) and Anika Lore Hatch (Gretl).

And introducing Charlotte Maltby as Maria Rainer in her national tour debut.

Director Jack O'Brien had this to say about casting the iconic role of Maria: "I was privileged to actually see Mary Martin in the original production - as I was myself just a junior at the University of Michigan. She was a great star, and she was giving a 'great star's' performance. She was at the apex of her career, and she was both brilliant and 46 years old.

"But in reading it privately, something caught my eye: Maria is probably, as a postulant, no more than six or seven years older than Liesl! She may be many things - a country lass, a climber-of-trees, a young renegade, but she is clearly NOT an established star! How interesting!

"I've always believed Maria was a 'star-making' part, rather than the leading role we remember from the movies and our experience; so I went looking for someone with star-making magic."

On his new leading lady, who takes over the role from Kerstin Anderson: "You often wonder if lightning ever strikes twice?

"Our original Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, an undergraduate sophomore from Pace University, was just such an original - and as a truly youthful "discovery" in her theatrical debut, she pretty much shattered both expectations and all previous molds. So when it came time for her departure, one wondered if the entire event might change into something very different.

"....and then, Charlotte Maltby walked through the door. The daughter of celebrated writer and director, Richard Maltby, Jr, she was, of course, theatrical royalty personified; but was I prepared for her poise, her naturalness, her timing, her elegance? No, I was not. Was I prepared for that voice - one of the richest and most powerful I believe I have ever heard in a theatre before?

"No, I most assuredly was not. And yet, there she stood - and the tears in my eyes as I heard the first notes of THE SOUND OF MUSIC testified that we were in a small age of theatrical miracles: there was lightning once more, pure, and anything but simple.

"Our discovery now is your pleasure; we are blessed by not only the continuing gift of this "sleeping beauty" of a musical, but more so by the refreshing talent that is somehow inevitably attracted to perform in it."

The ensemble includes Christopher Carl, Donna Garner, Robert Mammana, Darren Matthias, Carey ReBecca Brown, Woody Buck, Cáitlín Burke, Maria Failla, Meghan Hales, Jillian Jameson, Mark Bradley Miller, Anna Mintzer, Julia Osborne, Zane Phillips, Rebecca Pitcher, Michael Spaziani and Emily Trumble.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. This new production is directed by Jack O'Brien (credits include: Hairspray, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Coast of Utopia), choreographed by Danny Mefford (Fun Home, The Bridges of Madison County and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) and music supervision by Andy Einhorn (Bullets Over Broadway, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Brief Encounter, The Light in the Piazza). The design and production team is comprised of Douglas W. Schmidt, set design (Tony Award nominee: 42nd Street, Into the Woods); Jane Greenwood, costume design (2014 recipient of the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), Natasha Katz, lighting design (Five-time Tony Award winner: An American in Paris, Once, Aida, The Coast of Utopia, The Glass Menagerie) and Ken Travis, sound design (Aladdin, Newsies, Memphis). Casting by Telsey + Company/Rachel Hoffman, CSA.

According to director Jack O'Brien, "THE SOUND OF MUSIC has been in our ears for decades, as it deserves to be. But it might be time to look once more, and more closely, at this remarkable work which, I feel, begins to reveal itself as deeper, richer, and more powerful

For more information, visit www.TheSoundOfMusicOnTour.com.

The Palace's primary purpose is to revitalize the Greater Waterbury community through the presentation of the performing arts and educational initiatives in collaboration with area cultural and educational institutions. Its mission is to preserve and operate the historic Palace Theater as a performing arts center and community gathering place that provides a focal point of cultural activity and educational outreach for diverse audiences. For more information, visit www.palacetheaterct.org.

Pictured: Charlotte Maltby as 'Maria Rainer'. Photo by Matthew Murphy.

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