The Sound of Music at 14th St. Y Theater

For Immediate Release Contact: Mark Rosenstein
March 7, 2025
(917)952-7969
The St. Jean’s Players Presents
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
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
At a moment when, perhaps, all Americans can use a bit of uplift, along comes the St. Jean’s Players production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. One of the most beloved of all golden age musicals, winner of the 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical (shared that year with Fiorello!) as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture 6 years later, this irresistible show brings enough joy, melody, laughter, and pure entertainment value to gladden the heart of audiences of all ages and tastes.
In the late 1950’s, seeking a new vehicle to equal her fabulous successes in South Pacific (1949) and Peter Pan (1954), the great Broadway star Mary Martin was introduced to Maria von Trapp after a performance in a touring production of Annie Get Your Gun. (For her performance as Maria, Martin would eventually win the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, besting Ethel Merman in Gypsy) By the 1950’s Maria (now Baroness von Trapp) was known for creating the Trapp Family Singers, and the story of how that all came about was a fascinating one:
In Austria in the 1920’s, Maria Kuczera, a free-spirited postulant on her way to becoming a nun, was directed by her Mother Superior to first take a temporary position as tutor to the large family of a widowed naval commander, Georg von Trapp. She quickly became emotionally attached to his seven children, left the convent, married him, added 3 more children with him, and by the late 1930’s bonded them into a small touring choir. Ideologically resistant to the rising wave of Nazism, the family fled Europe just in time, arriving in New York City where (at The Town Hall on W. 43rd St.) the Trapp Family Singers made their American debut in late 1938.
The theatrical project initially envisioned by Martin and playwrights Lindsay and Crouse (whose 1939 Life With Father remains the longest running straight play in Broadway history) was not a conventional musical: more of a drama enlivened by classical and traditional songs from the family’s touring repertoire. To which, perhaps Mary’s old friends Rodgers and Hammerstein might contribute an original song or two.
Too show-biz savvy to allow their new songs to be sung alongside those of Mozart and Brahms, R&H signed on to write the full score, their final collaboration, adding to their immense legacy such immortal numbers as the clever, catchy “Do-Re-Mi”, the lilting “My Favorite Things”, the soaring "Climb Ev'ry Mountain”, and of course the glorious title song. The score’s last song, “Edelweiss”, so authentic it is often believed to be a real Austrian folk song, was Oscar Hammerstein II’s last lyric before his passing in 1960.
The St. Jean’s Players is one of New York’s longest-established non-profit theater groups, devoted since its founding in the 1970’s to presenting quality live theater to the community at affordable prices. The Sound of Music will be performed 7 times only, April 4 - April 13, at the 14th St. Y Theater, 344 E. 14th St. (1st - 2nd Ave.) The Theater is handicapped-accessible. Tickets are $35, $25 Senior 65+ and Children through age 18. For performance schedule and tickets, please visit www.stjeansplayers.org

Authors

• Howard Lindsay
• Maria Augusta Trapp
• Oscar Hammerstein II
• Richard Rodgers
• Russel Crouse

Tony Awards and Nominations for The Sound of Music