The Golden Age of musical theatre ranges from the 1940s until the 1960s, and it produced an incredible range of memorable musicals, including My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy, West Side Story, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music. Most were converted into movies, but not all were successful. As a disciple of both movies and musical theatre, I’ve often wondered if there’s a rule concerning movie adaptation of musicals: is one automatically better than the other? The simple answer seems to be that it depends. In the case of Cabaret, the musical is infinitely better than its movie counterpart, which eliminated crucial elements of the Kander and Ebb story on its way to the silver screen. The Sound of Music ironically falls into the other category. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is a disjointed collection of scenes linked by legendary songs that make the audience forgive the plot’s choppy structure; the movie expanded characters and scenes in ways that improved the play. It also didn’t hurt to have the beloved Julie Andrews in the celebrated role of Maria Von Trapp, the real-life counterpart whose life experiences formed the basis of the play and movie.
Recently, CYT (Christian Youth Theatre) presented The Sound of Music at Angelle Hall with a cast of four score and five. I have now seen two CYT productions—Beauty and the Beast, Jr. last May was the other—and both shows highlight particular strengths and weaknesses of the CYT system in Lafayette. Both productions promoted musical excellence with nice choreography and incredibly striking sets, but they do so at the expense of character development. When the music and lyrics take center stage, the play soars; when the book takes over, the book being the non-musical portion of the play, the actors become flat and bland, simply reciting lines without the requisite feelings and emotions. CYT has proven that it can assemble a fine cast of singers, but what they need most now is a character coach who can bring life to the characters when they’re not singing. (Plus a word of legal advice: it is a mandatory requirement to list the authors of any play or musical on both posters and programs, usually in a font no smaller than 50% of the title. Not once in the program is any credit given for the music by Richard Rodgers, the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and the book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It’s a grievous and potentially litigious oversight that I hope is corrected in future productions.)
CYT employs a cast of actors ranging from ages four to eighteen, and in this cast, Sarah Fruge as Maria was the anchor holding the play together. [Full disclosure: several cast members attend Lafayette High School, where I am employed as a teacher, but I do not teach any of those students except Timothy Theriot.] As its most seasoned stage member, Fruge moved naturally on stage, adapted beautifully to the music, had good chemistry with fellow cast members, and brought a certain warmth to her portrayal of Maria. In her scenes with the Von Trapp children—Christine Soileau (Liesl), William Sciambra (Freidrich), Celia Theriot (Louisa), Bret Chalpin (Kurt), Sophia Brazda (Brigitte), Carlin Sekhani (Marta), and Meghan Colomb (Gretl)—an ambiance prevails that forms the heart of the play. When the group sang “Do Re Mi,” “So Long Farewell,” and “My Favorite Things,” the audience basked in their warmth, reminding everyone what good theatre should be. Linda Riley as the Mother Abbess possessed an incredible voice of immense range, and her “Climb Every Mountain” brought rapturous applause.
When the music stopped, however, so did some of the play’s momentum, and I am uncertain whether it’s the fault of the book or the CYT system of using teenagers as directors. Directing shows requires fortitude and a wealth of experience that teenagers lack through no fault of their own; they are simply too young. Though I am certain she tried her best, Kallie Broussard as director and choreographer left many of her actors on stage without purpose. Choreography and singing are her strengths, and should she direct future productions, she needs to consider what to do with the characters in the non-musical portions. The nuns who didn’t care for Maria showed little in their voices or mannerisms to support such disdain. Even Riley as the Mother Abbess came across as lackluster when simply conversing with Maria or other nuns. Though he sings well, Rex Jones as George Von Trapp began as a pinched-voice jerk, but morphed too quickly into a good-natured father without a plausible conversion. Timothy Theriot has a touching scene with Christine Soileau in “Sixteen Going On Seventeen,” but his conversion into a Nazi soldier is abrupt, but again, that could be the fault of the book. Triston Lavergne as Max provided a good mix of self-serving wit, but the book did a disservice to Rebecca Guidry as the Baroness Elsa. Guidry did what she could, but would have had a more rewarding character with the lines from the adapted movie.
In some ways, the venue limited the production’s success. Scene changes that would have lasted less than thirty seconds on a New York stage where an entire set can come up from the floor or down from the ceiling took much longer in Angelle Hall, and the attempts to have characters wander across the stage only alleviated the problem slightly. Most of the lighting choices were appropriate, but the lighting was too dark at the beginning of the scene in Maria’s bedroom during the thunderstorm. CYT did a remarkable job costuming so many people, but the Nazi outfits gave problems. Some characters’ sleeves were considerably longer than the arms inside them, and not all of the marching Hitler Youth had the necessary black boots. And yet, most people with any heart in their chests would feel these complaints melt away when characters like Gretl (Meghan Colomb) say “I thought this was God’s house,” as the Nazis search for them in the vaults of the Abbey. With the right cast, audiences can forgive lots of things.
There is one moment where everything gelled perfectly, and that scene came in Act I. When a thunderstorm forces the Von Trapp children to seek refuge in Maria’s room, a magical momentum took over as the eight actors on stage became a cohesive whole. Their interactions seemed natural, the choreography unforced, the lighting appropriate, the music lovely. In that one scene, the audience glimpsed the power that CYT can forge in presenting musical theatre. My only hope is that CYT can harness their strengths and magnify that magic to the point where it lasts for the entire musical.
---Vincent P. Barras
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