Sound of Music

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BURNSVILLE — While not among the greatest shows of American musical theater, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” ranks among the most popular, and Parkway Playhouse’s current mounting of this workhorse will please the aficionados of the venerable property. And they are many.

OK, “The Sound of Music” is hokey, saccharine, cloying and based on a whitewashed, self-aggrandizing rewriting of history by a stepmother of seven children of a widowed Austrian sea captain. Guilty as charged. But, its adaptation to the stage by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, with all the wonderful, if formulaic, music/lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, makes for terrific theater.

Those who’ve known Parkway Playhouse for many of its 62 seasons will rejoice at the comfort of updated theater seating, effective air conditioning and more adequate technical equipment, none of which compromises the charm of the old barn with bead-board walls and rustic demeanor. Further, the quality of theater performance has vastly improved over earlier years, as well.

Producing artistic director Andrew Gall has tightened up the company, raised the standards of both show selection and production quality, while building a loyal audience core that supports the new-and-improved components of one of the oldest theater companies in North Carolina.

“The Sound of Music” is a large show, with somewhat more than 30 roles in the cast. Coordinating that many actors, with most of the children double-cast, is a daunting task, alone. The show’s director, Christopher Dwyer, has melded this crowd into a cohesive whole, with minimal opening night faux pas.

There was one “costume malfunction,” a missing mirror in a valise, and a hard-to-tame Act II overture, which reminded the opening night audience that theater is hard work, and the perfection of edited work is hard to achieve in live theater. It’s nothing a few more performances won’t cure.

The cast is competent, with several fine voices.

The role of the renegade postulant in a religious order, Maria Rainer, is appealingly played by Lindsay Day Henry, with a strong, sweet voice and winsome charm. Her romantic lead, Herr Captain Georg von Trapp is strongly played by Rob Storrs. Her competition for his hand is Elsa Shrader, interpreted by Jennifer Short.

A dozen talented children take the roles of the seven motherless kids, and the young telegraph delivery boy, who is smitten by the eldest von Trapp daughter. There are too many names to list.

Nine nuns range from compassionate and human to rigid and authoritarian. Jordan Danz gives us the comic foil of Franz the butler. Austrian aristocracy, nasty Nazis and charming children fill the stage, and the cute, competent kids carry a lot of the load. A seven-person pit orchestra conducted by musical director Michael Kiedrowski is spunky. The use of a tuba gives much of the music an oom-pah feel that is highly appropriate to the locale of the story.

The versatile set-design of mottled granite serves to host scenes in the abbey, the von Trapp living room and garden, a mountain top and a concert hall in Salzburg. It was designed by Christopher Dwyer and Bruce Chuvala. Deborah Austin’s costumes are effectively evocative and atmospheric.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5. E-mail him at JimCavener@aya.Yale.edu.