Spoiler alert: This won’t be your mother’s “The Sound of Music.”
The upcoming Manhasset High School theater production of the film classic starring Julie Andrews will be darker and grounded in the political tensions surrounding its characters than past iterations, said Robb Fessler, the school’s theater director.
“I always tell the kids, ‘The Sound of Music’ is a play that has a big suitcase – it carries a lot of baggage,” Fessler said. “The audience is going to come to the theater thinking they’re going to get the movie, and they’re not going to get the movie.”
Of course, the musical’s familiar beats will remain: the story still follows the seven von Trapp sisters and their German naval captain father and the show is still filled with songs made famous by Andrews and, more recently, Carrie Underwood.
But this time around, Fessler and Co. will explore Captain von Trapp’s struggles to embrace the rising Nazi party in pre-war Austria.
“The reason the Holocaust happened is because there were a large number of people scared of the movement and didn’t want to make waves, even though they disagreed with what happened,” said Fessler, who also teaches history at the Manhasset Secondary School.
“We looked over letters in which ordinary Germans talked about how they didn’t want to support the Nazis but felt powerless to stand against them,” he said. “I really do believe the majority of Germans were fed this and felt obliged to eat it.”
Auditions and casting for the show took place at the end of the 2013-14 school year.
When the cast returned to school in September, Fessler gave them a crash-course in World War II history prior to starting rehearsals.
“This is going to be a version people probably haven’t seen before,” said senior Zoe Vincoff, who stars as Maria von Trapp. “Everybody knows the Julie Andrews version and how she delivered her lines, but we’re here to create our own characters. There’s more of a historical context. It’s going to be different.”
Vincoff, who said she was “very familiar” with the 1959 film version of the musical, credited the cast’s regular character exploration sessions to shed her preconceived notions of von Trapp’s speech patterns and mannerisms.
“I think Maria is very down-to-earth and very complex,” she said. “There are a lot of emotions to her, whereas in past productions she’s all, ‘life is great,’ and they didn’t really play to these emotions. She’s been a lot of fun to get to know.”
The show will run for four days, from Nov. 20 through 23. Tickets are available on the school district’s website starting at $12 for side balcony seats and $15 for the center balcony or orchestra section.
Vincoff stars alongside Alex Baranello’s Captain Georg von Trapp. Kat Terzo and Kate Brady will play Elsa for a pair of shows and Thomas Moschitta and Jack Eletto will take turns as Max. Rose Rutkovsky will play Mother Superior.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played a role like this before,” Terzo said of Elsa, whose sophisticated baroness is a departure from the comedic characters she is used to portraying. “It’s a challenge, but Fess casts us based on what he thinks we can do and this role has taught me so much about myself as an actor. I think that’s true of all of us. It’s going to be quite a show.”
