‘Sound Of Music’ On Tour Passes The Test

“Sound of Music” Tuesday, Jan. 10, Spokane Opera House

‘The Sound of Music” is so beloved, and so full of charming images (kids and nuns), and so rich with great Rodgers and Hammerstein melodies, that the practical goal of any production is: Don’t screw it up.

It doesn’t have to be innovative. It doesn’t have to be inspired. It just has to be competent and professional in order to faithfully convey the classic songs and the simple story.

It just has to be good.

This big touring production, directed by James Hammerstein (son of Oscar), is easily a success by that measure. It is always professional and polished. The production values are high. The voices are uniformly fine. The great songs are done with faithful purity.

And the audience (including certain theater critics) goes home humming.

And good is the straightforward term I would also use to describe Marie Osmond’s performance as Maria. Her voice is fine and her stage presence is strong. She plays Maria as an ebullient, slightly flighty big sister who just wants to do the right thing. She comes across as so likable, you never doubt for a minute that the Von Trapp children will fall in love with her, and so will the Captain.

A few elements of her performance reveal the fact that, despite 20 years in show business, this is her first theater role. Her acting is a bit rote, consisting of a few stock gestures and broad takes. And when she sings she does some odd things with her vowels, making lyrics such as “once more,” come out as, “waaauunnce more.” This may be the result of her country-music background, although in general, her voice is pure and strong with no raw edges.

Granted, she’s no Julie Andrews nor Mary Martin, but nobody expected that. It’s enough that her performance embodies the things that any Maria ought to be: sweet, spunky and innocent.

Probably the show’s best performance comes from Neal Benari as Capt. Von Trapp. I’ve seen other productions in which Capt. Von Trapp comes off as rigid, repressed and impossible to like. Benari’s Von Trapp is frosty, all right, but he requires only a little thawing by Maria and the children to turn into a warm-hearted dad. His “Edelweiss” was full of underlying emotion.

Keith Jochim delivers the best supporting performance as the charming (just ask him) Max Detweiler. Jochim uses his deep rich voice as a comic instrument, like Orson Welles crossed with Jackie Gleason. Speaking of voices, the best singing voice in the cast belongs to Claudia Cummings, a veteran opera star who plays the Mother Abbess. Her version of “Climb Every Mountain” is moving.

The rest of the nuns and Von Trapp children are all suitably sweet. The standout among the children is Vanessa Dorman as Liesl, who does a great job with “Sixteen Going On Seventeen.” By the way, if the boy playing Kurt looks somehow familiar, that’s because he is Stephen Blosil, Osmond’s son.

The sets, by Neil Peter Jampolis, are absolute knockouts, especially the burnished-wood convent set and the expansive Von Trapp home set. And the sound is as good as it has been at any Best of Broadway show.

Hammerstein’s staging is straightforward, with no frills. The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre actually did a far more imaginative job last summer of staging the climactic concert scene.

Still, it all works. This touring show has five more performances in Spokane - one tonight and two each on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are still available for most performances.

MEMO: “The Sound of Music,” continues through Sunday at the Spokane Opera House, call 325-SEAT.