BWW Reviews: South Portland Comes Alive with THE SOUND OF MUSIC

South Portland Comes Alive with The Sound of Music

The Portland Players choice of Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music for their holiday season is a joyous one for cast and audience alike. The production directed by Joshua Chard with a cast of primarily young players radiates a warmth and sincerity which makes up for any of its defects.

Chard chooses to emphasize the humanity, even fragility, of the characters while deepening and darkening the context of the looming winds of war. He reinstates two songs for Elsa and Max (How Can Love Survive and No Way To Stop It) which question the moral issues facing the upper class in light of the impending Anschluss. Often utilizing the aisles to add a surround feel, Chard manages to transform the somewhat static proscenium theatre with imagination and fluidity.

In this he is aided by Steven Lupien's attractive stage design. Lupien tackles the larger-than-life Alpine setting with a series of atmospheric drops (painted by Stacey Koloski) and some faux stone arches that serve both interior and exterior locations, backed by an elegant staircase unit. The crew executes the scene shifts with professional ease. Kate Herrold enhances the ambiance with an agreeably warm-toned lighting design. The costumes, created by a committee headed by Michael Donovan, while clearly on a budget, are evocative with the Austrian dirndls and children's outfits particularly charming. Scott Whiting's sound design struggles to make the best of the theatre's flat acoustics. One hopes with their ongoing house renovations that the Portland Players will consider miking to even the audio palette and to boost the singers.

Grappling with these sound issues, Bob Gauthier's musical direction is faced with some problems. Using twin pianos as accompaniment, Gauthier and partner Bethany Ferland provide solid, if pedestrian instrumental support to the singers. Gauthier's choice of tempi is curiously slow and the playing in need of much more legato. His direction of the singers is more successful, however, particularly with the choral ensembles. The a capella quartets and nuns' choruses, staffed by lovely, pure voices, are among the best musical moments in the show.

Jamie Lupien Swenson's choreography is somewhat repetitive, and the climactic romantic dance between von Trapp and Maria fails to convey the crucial chemistry that the script suggests.

Despite these limitations, the ensemble carries on with animation and obvious commitment to the work. Molly Frantzen is a fresh and sympathetic Maria, believably young, sweetly incorrigible, and gently maternal. Her lyric soprano has a purity and heft especially in the upper register. Jennifer Hoopes is a wise and kind Mother Abbess, who after a quiet start, makes Climb Every Mountain the showstopper it should be. Ashley St. Pierre (Sr. Berthe), Barbara Laveault (Sr. Margaretta), and Jennifer Kennedy (Sr. Sophia) round out the ecclesiastical quartet with nicely delineated cameos.

Charlie Marenghi conveys Georg von Trapp's dignity and principle, though he regrettably, on this occasion, he often sang flat and robbed Edelweiss of its impact. Rebecca Washko does a fine job in her enhanced role as Elsa Schraeder, von Trapp's aristocratic fiancée, as does Michael Donovan as the amusingly eccentric Max Detweiler. Bob Pettee is an appropriately dour butler and Lynne White a feisty housekeeper. Christian Colley Rolf is convincing as a smitten teenager with his dangerous Nazi conviction. Shannon Howard as the oldest von Trapp daughter Liesl reveals a sweet and musical, if small, voice together with a lovely stage presence.

The remaining six children played at this performance by the "Edelweiss team" - Friedrich (Daniel Howard), Louisa (Emma Jones), Kurt (Nick Sutton), Brigitta (Sophia Urey), Marta (Lucie Boudreau), and Gretl (Grace Callahan) give the show much of its magic. Using local school children of the actual ages required adds authenticity and a disarming genuineness to the cast. This children's ensemble is professionally disciplined - (thanks to Child Wrangler Ashley St. Pierre); yet, they add an aura of naiveté that wins hearts. Outstanding vocally were freshman Emma Jones (Louisa) and fifth grader Nick Sutton (Kurt), whose boy soprano solo justly stirred accolades.

The final tableau - the von Trapp family posed dramatically against the backdrop of the towering Alps - is geared to elicit emotion, and it does. The completely sold out house responded, demonstrating their approval with a standing ovation at the final curtain. It was touching to this writer to see so many children and families in the audience clearly engrossed not only in the story, but also in the magic of Live Theatre!

Photos Courtesy of Portland Players

The Sound of Music runs from November 22 - December 8, 2013 at the Portland Players, 420 Cottage Street, South Portland, ME 04106 207-799-7337 info@portlandplayers.org

To post a comment, you must register and login.