Unfortunately, one of my memories of seeing this show will always be that we were late for it! It is only the second time in all my theatre-going that I have been late for a show (the other time was because I had the starting time wrong). This time was because my mother and I were taking the train from Toronto to Stratford, and the train was delayed, so we ended up sitting in the middle of a field for 20 minutes. We arrived *just* as the curtain was going up, but were unable to enter the theatre until after “The Sound of Music”. So that was a little upsetting, but once I got over that, I got on to enjoying the rest of the show!
Cynthia Dale played Maria, and this was my first time seeing her on stage. She actually had a better voice than I had expected, and did a good job with the role. She was most definitely not Julie Andrews or Rebecca Luker, but she did well enough. C. David Johnson is not usually a musical theatre actor, but he had a nice singing voice, and was a good Captain. Mary Ann McDonald was excellent as Baroness Schraeder, a part that is much more developed in the stage show than it was in the movie. The children were all very good, it was fun to see Regan Thiel on stage again, and, as is always the case with Stratford shows, the production values were excellent.
“My Favourite Things” was a really cute scene, and I particularly enjoyed Jeanne Lehmen’s rendition of “Climb Every Mountain”. It was very interesting to have the songs that Max and Elsa sing (“How Can Love Survive” and “No Way to Stop It”), and at the concert at the end, when they unfurled the large Nazi flags down the walls of the theatre, it was truly chilling. Overall, I really enjoyed the show, and definitely would enjoy seeing another production of it on stage at some point.
The cast:
Maria Rainer
CYNTHIA DALE
The Mother Abbess
JEANNE LEHMEN
Sister Berthe
KAREN SKIDMORE
Sister Margaretta
DEBORAH TENNANT
Sister Sophia
BARBARA FULTON
Captain Georg von Trapp
C. DAVID JOHNSON
Franz, the butler
DAVID KIRBY
Frau Schmidt, the housekeeper
LALLY CADEAU
Liesl
SHANNON TAYLOR
Friedrich
JORDAN DAWE
Louisa
MEGAN BARKER
Kurt
ADAM DOLSON
Brigitta
LISA MANIS
Marta
ALICIA THOMPSON
Gretl
AISLINN PAUL
Rolf Gruber
CORY O’BRIEN
Elsa Schraeder
MARY ANN McDONALD
Ursula
REGAN THIEL
Max Detweiler
RAYMOND O’NEILL
Herr Zeller
IAN WHITE
Baron Elberfeld
LARRY FRENCH
Baroness Elberfeld
KAREN SKIDMORE
A New Postulant
BARBARA DUNN-PROSSER
Admiral von Schreiber
DOUGLAS CHAMBERLAIN
Frauline Schweiger
EILEEN SMITH
Trio Members
LARRY FRENCH
BARBARA FULTON
DEBORAH OVERES