how do you solve a problem like maria?

trick question: you don’t.

you let her be exactly who she is.

and once you give her permission to give herself permission to love a widower navy admiral (with a great voice), well, according to the sorta-patient nuns, the love between a man & a woman is holy, too.

last night i got to see ROGER & HAMMERSTEIN’S THE SOUND OF MUSIC at the peace center in greenville, sc.

peace broadway

the things i remember of the movie as a kid: the goat puppet show and the scary (so scary!) chase through the cemetery.

also, that my cousin stacey played gretl (the youngest of the admiral’s SEVEN children) in the school musical when she was only in the 2nd grade.

pretty sure i remember that because i was jealous— for i had been cast not as the cutie of the show, but as, but really: “the old man” in “the boy who cried wolf” for my kindergarten pageant.

no pretty dresses for me. just nearly the same ridiculous costume rolf wears in the sound of music— but you know: me, a five year-old, with a grey mustache (that black rubber u-shaped thing that held it in my nose is forever stamped in my not-so-fond memories) and tiny round fake wire-rim glasses hobbling across the carpeted platform with a walking stick instead. sigh.

anyway: my cousin stacey wasn’t in last night’s show.

but the kids* on stage did steal the show last night.

or, the kids WOULD have stolen the show if it wasn’t for the lithe bundle of joy that was cayleigh capaldi in the role of maria.

*especially smart*arse brigitta— bahahaha.

*full house last night! tickets are going fast for the rest of this week’s performances, too!* https://www.peacecenter.org/events/peace-broadway-top-level/2025-2026-peace-broadway-1/

as a storyteller myself, my brain shifts into story mode when i’m at a show— questioning pacing and what target audience(s) they producers are trying to hit/cover/appeal to with such a range of storylines and songs.

granted, i imagine MOST of the audience was already familiar with the sound of music. but i was still desperately curious to know where everybody fit on the scale of newbie to superfan.

and for those who’d maybe never seen it, or hadn’t watched it since they were kids, did the fast-paced clip-along musical even make any sense?

i mean, every aspect of the story is revolving around one Very Serious thing:

the nazis’ invasion of austria, and whether you were compliant or— like in the show— fled in the middle of the night because you were not on team third reich.*

the classic musical is of course based on the true story of the von Trapp family singers, although made much more entertaining for the stage and screen. (the family had a lot of opinions about the film, although i would have to imagine they cast no shade on queen dame goddess julie andrews, because who would dare?)**

* gotta say, seeing the nazi flags made me (and dad, my +one for the evening) wildly uncomfortable. yes, it was a part of the story, but ouch. (and do you clap when the flags are the backdrop for a song sung well? or do you boo, like one might for a villain’s song in any other musical?)

** a personal favorite supplement to the classic film, WHAT WENT WRONG podcast’s june 30, 2025 episode all about he behind the scenes of production and filming: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-went-wrong/id1512847066?i=1000715099414

but behold the beauty of storytelling: we make it human. even if we don’t stick to the exact facts.

and the facts were these:

i realllllly wanted to ask the older woman next to me what song she was looking forward to the most, but i was too chicken to ask her.
and i reallllly wanted to enjoy the kid unable to keep himself from singing along to “do-re-mi” behind me— but when he snored through the rest of act I, i found him slightly less cute.*
i also really tried to turn off all the “comp titles” my brain was clicking through during the show: the twelve dancing princesses (the king/dad banning music and dancing for sorrow over the death of his wife); and isn’t this the exact same plot of the king & i, and didn’t rogers and hammerstein write that one, too?

*to be fair, i sleep best through action movies, so to each their own.

*i’m grateful to at least live in a big enough small city that shows like this come to town and it’s not a huge hoopdy-do to get downtown to see them. also, how lovely is the peace center?!*

but here, most importantly, were a few of my favorite things from seeing the show live last night:

the nuns were funnier than i remember.

yes, there are still a number of v. soprano/high-pitched songs, but they didn’t drag the show down like i feel like they do in the movie.

the sets!!!!!!!!

so, last year, i did a bit too much of a deep dive into broadway set design (For Book Reasons), but wow: it never ceases to amaze me.

the moving walls at the abbey for moving through space. the wall patterns that felt like medieval tapestries there, that were then oversized lace patterns at the admiral’s manor.

the forced perspective of the drop paintings.

the utility of the porch rails and the general claustrophobia to the whole show— except for the ONE scene when we first meet maria and she’s off by herself singing “the sound of music” in an idealized, rosy and romantic landscape painting.

the forced perspective of the manor’s staircase, the painting through the porch french doors, and the drop for the abbey scene… just stunning.

and i can’t explain why the triangle of the roof of maria’s room lifting back up into the flys made me happy after the thunderstorm, but i just love to see LIVE THEATRE at WORK, i guess.

the music

were there too many reprises? oh, for sure.

but, the lyrics were SO clear. caught a LOT of beautiful lines i either never paid attention to the lyrics because the tune was so familiar, or because the actors’ voices were so great that i was tuned in to every word.*

& i was i proud of myself for recognizing some signature rogers & hammerstein riffs (and story structure) because r&h’s CINDERELLA** is usually my first go-to road trip cd? you betcha.

* it’s like the editing trick: change your manuscript/report/whatever to a different font (comic sans, anyone?) to catch typos or errors. since you’ve already read it 40x, it’s too familiar in its usual form and your eyes are glazing over what you might have missed the last 39 times you read it.

** for example: the bridge of the song “something good” had a lot in common with “in my own little corner” from cinderella. and both shows end with a soprano singing the theme of the show. in the sound of music, it’s reverend mother singing “….till you find your dream.” in cindy, it’s the fairy godmother sending her off to her happily ever after, too!

the clothes

it’d never clicked that under the NAVY admiral’s disciplinary parenting that the children were in SAILOR* outfits.

the flowy, garden printed gowns at the party + elsa’s gold ballgown. (also props for not making elsa the stepmom-to-be villain stereotype. she just simply wasn’t a romantic match.)

and maria’s white and blue apron number— which felt very belle from beauty & the beast-esque, but i’d still wear it. #teampuffysleeves

*when i lived in japan, the school uniforms were quite similar: the large collar and small tie with a pleated skirt. before last night, i’d just thought it was a sibling uniform (you know, big family = no-frills hand-me-downs) and not a direct reference to dad’s job of being in command on the sea.

and, as mentioned: maria!

she (cayleigh capaldi) was great. (and had a great voice to play r&h’s cinderella, too. i can hear it.)

and paper nerd bonus: the smell of the printed program.

not an official playbill, but ooooohhhh how much better to hold (& collect) paper than a sad QR code on my phone i’ll never find/use/be able to reference again.

my view, post 20-minute intermission, as the orchestra started up while i sat there fearing all of act ii would be scary nazis.

my less-favorite things, although the show has been on broadway, and subsequently on national tour, for who knows how long now… so apparently these things don’t bother anyone else:

the number of reprises

yes, there are favorite songs in this show. but do we need to hear the four most popular three to four times each? i really don’t think so.

the two (new??) songs

both “how can love survive” and “no way to stop it.” they were grown-ups singing. they were unmemorable. and everything the songs said they’d already said in the (too long) dialogue scenes, so i vote cut ‘em. (but hey, no one invited me to the workshopping or previews of the show, so i suppose it’s too late.) ;)

rolf

i.e. liesl’s “older” suitor (you know, from “sixteen going on seventeen”), a.k.a. telegram boy. he’s just annoying. and his clothes were ridiculous. liesl was a stupendous dancer (you could tell by her standing posture, even if her wig was a bit too ariana-as-galinda blond), but he kinda felt like he was phoning in the romantic lead, the dance partner-ing, and being a stooge of a bad guy who makes ONE good decision at the end of the show.

this could also me my v. strong aversion to all bad guys. or that they were really just a really, really bad pair of embroidered khaki shorts. ;)

we didn’t get the goat puppet show like in the movie

they sang the song in the attic bedroom (amazing set even if the lighting made me jump EverY stupid time), but no puppets. i loved the puppets.

also, i know it’s a classic, but my favorite musicals are singing-dancing-spectacles of choreography and sequins. & this was obviously not one of those shows. but we read widely and we theatre-widely, too? :)

*give me surreal puppets any day, please. :)*

and, maybe it’s just me being feisty theatre diva:

i know we live in south carolina, but a coat check would be so nice!

the older lady next to me, the one i regret not asking her her connection/fandom to the show, told me how to put it behind me like a blanket against my seat, but still. lumpy, cumbersome, and i was sweating because i’d dressed for the weather outside (30-something fahrenheit) and not under-the-balcony heated-theatre nearly next to the switchboard booth, i guess.

can you smell that program ink on the matte paper? all those actor and crew bios. all the restaurant ads. the list of songs and black and white headshots? glorious, no? see also: my fuzzy mail bear theatre notebook for taking notes in the dark. :)

and, as usual, here are some favorite lines (out of context) that made me chuckle:

“you will call me captain.”

“maybe they’re having a good time not speaking to each other.” ~brigitta

“maria, are you in love with captain von Tropp?”
“brigitta told me i was.”

“i was given permission to sing!”

“the poor didn’t want this one.”

thank you again, peace center, and the whole cast and crew of the sound of music: for putting it all out there on the stage. for designing such a moving slice of history and resilience. for helping us find love and joy in nature as well as in each other. for accepting differences and not collaborating with bullies.

here’s to art. to live theatre. to climbing the mountain (proverbial or otherwise) till you find your dream, too.

xo,

*hallie :)

the next shows i’m looking forward to at the peace center?

next week:

teehee hamlet

and first up in 2026,
the next two broadway traveling shows:

les miz, and especially The OUTsiDERs! eep!