Ah indeed can you smell that fresh mountain air? Well you should be as today marks the day that the The Sound Of Music opened on Broadway in 1959. As a kid this was my favorite musical and movie for quite some time. Now I did listen to the Broadway Cast album with Mary Martin and Theordor Bikel but the movie is what I love. Why? Well because I always wanted to sing like Julie Andrews (good god who wouldn't?) and I wanted to marry Christopher Plummer. Yup at the ripe old age of 6 I knew I was destined to love men with amazing voices, actors and 20 years older than me. (ooh ha-thanks cause that's going real well for me in the real world). When I went to visit my aunts I would spend forever holding that Soundtrack album cover and perfecting my yodeling skill in "Lonely Goat Herd". Anyway, I could sit here and describe everything I love about the music and the movie and maybe I will at a later date, but right now I just want to give a bit of a shout out to something that I'll always hold dear in my heart. This is something that I never grow tired of seeing, makes me still smile when Lisel sneeks out of the house and meets Rolf and sings "16 going on 17" and makes me still hope that one day somewhere in the future I'll be meeting my "Christopher Plummer" in a gazebo. sigh...oh well
Also to note, for anyone who has a chance to see "Fraulein Maria" by Doug Elkins do so. It's a joyous celebration of The Sound of Music and when I saw it as part of the ArtsEmerson season at the newly renovated Paramount, I was struck by how wonderfully diverse the crowd was. I had a dude in his 20's next to me with a Red Sox cap singing to "Do Re Mi", a very sweet elderly couple chuckling during the dance to "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" and everyone watching in wonder at the wonderful and amazing dance set to "Climb Every Mountain". And that's what's amazing about The Sound of Music. It still can bring joy to young and old alike, and inspire the creation of more artistic wonders. Thank you Rodgers and Hammerstein. Job well Done.
