Who would have thought that, in 1965, a movie about a singing Austrian nun outrunning the Nazis would break box office records in 29 countries, run in theaters for four and a half years, and sell more than 200 million tickets?
The original cast album won the GRAMMY Award, the touring production has performed more than 1,000 times in 224 cities, and the movie won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
For all its entertainment value, the story is a complex drama with lessons that are as relevant today as they were the day the movie premiered.
The Sound of Music is deceptively structured. Its first half is pure enchantment in the Swiss Alps, lifted with the unimaginable majesty of Rogers’ and Hammerstein’s last Broadway score, the Captain’s children, and the irresistible pull of two people falling toward each other. Its second half is something altogether different.
Nonetheless, 65 years later, its central story remains compelling enough to make audiences think, but only after they’ve made them feel really good.
Fresh off a stellar performance in a Broadway retrospective of Stephen Sondheim, the very busy Kevin Earley has stepped into the leading role of Captain von Trapp. He spoke with ENE last week and acknowledged the serious undertones of the play.
“A theater can do two things,” said Earley, “it can educate, and it can let you escape. The first half of this musical lets you really do that; it lets you escape, lets you believe in love, believe in hope,” said Earley.
The original story takes place around 1938, when Germany was invading Austria, so the second half of the play is much more serious.
“We talk about hope, we talk about love, and then we talk about courage, the courage to stand up for your convictions in a world that is closing in on them politically and socially,” he said.
Earley knows the story and the role well.
In fact, few people know that “The Sound of Music” launched Earley’s stage career.
Born in Chicago, Earley launched his professional career at 10, portraying Kurt in a production of The Sound of Music at the Marriott Theatre. His mother, Dyanne Earley, was the retired artistic director of Chicago’s Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre.
The man now on-stage playing Captain von Trapp on the national tour once played one of von Trapp’s own children.
His Broadway highlights include Old Friends with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, Les Misérables, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and A Tale of Two Cities, and he earned the kind of notices that make producers call. He holds a Drama Desk nomination, a Joseph Jefferson Award, and an L.A. Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Earley has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Kennedy Center.
“We keep three things at equal levels. The love, the hope, and the courage,” said Earley.
Moreover, given today’s world situation, he knows the story is as relevant today as it was six decades ago.
“It’s more relevant now than ever,” said Earley. “Politics and all things come in cycles, in waves, and now we’re at the peak of a political time that has turmoil. This show is part of it,” he said, “it’s a cautionary tale.”
“We’re not sugarcoating it. We didn’t change the story at all. The fact that they had to escape their country, their homeland, the place that they loved, because it was being taken over by people who had no intention of giving the people a voice anymore,” said Earley.
“That’s what happened,” said Earley, “and the captain knows it. He went through World War I. He knows what they’re capable of. Other people can’t see it. But other people sometimes don’t have the means to get out so the captain has to stand up for his family. That’s the courage that really comes through,” he said of the role.
Earley says Cayleigh Capaldi, in the role of Maria, “is brilliant. She’s wide-eyed and ready to take on anything. Nothing is missed.”
“Her voice is outstanding,” he adds.
Capaldi is joined by the brilliant Christiane Noll as the Mother Abbess, Nicholas Rodriguez as Max, and Kate Loprest as Elsa, bringing a new perspective, as well as an astonishingly original interpretation to one of our most beloved works, now seen in the individual light of today.
The spirited, romantic and beloved story of Maria and the von Trapp family features an unforgettable Tony, GRAMMY® and Academy Award®-winning Best Score, including legendary favorites “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Me,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “Edelweiss” and “The Sound of Music.”
“What Jack O’Brien (three-time Grammy-winning director) has really let me and Cayleigh Capaldi do is take the relationship to a more human level. That includes humor, nervousness, a lot of things that some productions have not necessarily explored,” he said.
“In the book that Maria von Trapp wrote, she wrote how kind her husband was, how loving he was toward his kids. He is kind. He has love for these children and for Maria. So it was great to explore how quickly I could get from the grieving widower to a kinder, more open, more loving, more well-rounded person,” said Earley.
The change, he believes, matters for a specific reason. “I think men who watch the show, if they watch a very stiff captain, can relate to this more. You can be a little goofy. You can be wrong in a situation. You’re not always going to get it the way you want. You have to go through the awkward phase of finding love. That’s what we explored.”
“I watch other versions, listen to other versions, pull from anything I think will work with this particular production and these particular people — and then I add as much of my own flair as possible to make it my own. So that I’m proud of what I’m doing. And running with the torch that Jack sent us on to carry.”
Tickets are available Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. (714) 556-27870, phone or (858) 434-8623, text. Ticket pricing starts at $39. The production runs June 2 through June 14.