Peter W. Rusland
Black Press
Paul Terry may be the only guy in Canada who hasn’t seen the movie The Sound Of Music.
But that hasn’t stopped him from playing the lead role of Capt. von Trapp in South Island Musical Society’s stage version of the famous family musical, taking the Port Theatre stage March 3.
“It’s basically a love story where love triumphs in the end,” Terry said.
Terry was tapped to play von Trapp by director Maria Ridewood after an actor cast earlier for the role was unable to carry through.
Terry, from Victoria, was amped about starring opposite Andrea Rodall’s Maria – perhaps show biz’s most beloved character, lionized by Julie Andrews in the 1965 movie version beside Canuck Christopher Plummer.
“Von Trapp’s embittered by the loss of his first wife and he’s a hurtin’ guy,” Terry said of the plot, based on the real von Trapp family of singers.
“Maria reawakens in him what he’s lost. There’s a nice journey through this play,” he said.
Rodall was excited about her second appearance in one of the musical society’s plays, after starring in the troupe’s 2007 production The Champagne Ball.
“I hope to play Maria my own way, but I grew up watching the movie,” she said, citing Something Good as her favourite song among many legendary Sound tunes.
She couldn’t resist auditioning for the part of the singing nun.
“Playing Maria is just everything to me,” she said of playing a governess who cares for von Trapp’s kids, then falls for the dashing captain. “It’s a busy role – Maria’s on stage a lot.”
Still, Rodall cited the musical’s moral surrounding “goodness” as the von Trapp clan faces the Nazi scourge looming across their Austrian homeland.
“The captain believes in what he does, and risks everything – and Maria takes on that risk with him because they don’t believe the Nazi propaganda.”
Either does Max Detweiler, played by Gregg Perry.
“Max is an ambitious-but-loveable politician with the arts and culture ministry, who’s concerned mainly with his own success, but he’s a bureaucrat,” Perry said.
“He wants to make sure his bread’s buttered on both sides so no matter which way the war goes, he’ll have friends on both sides.”
Perry was jazzed about appearing in a play laced with Helga Trinczek’s costumes, Cathy Schmidt’s choreography, Chris Killam’s sets and “some of the most familiar music of any musical.”
Perry also likes being in a production packed with local young talent, including Lily Killam, 5, cast as Gretl von Trapp.
“I love the songs and all the new kids I met,” she said. “My older sister, Alora, talked me into auditioning because everyone told me I’d make a great Gretl. Gretl is very cute and sweet.”
Killam said she’s not nervous about her first play that’s boosted her reading skills.
“I can’t read yet, but I’ve learned to through this script, outside of school books.”
Reading music for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s familiar tunes is “very straightforward” to musical director Hilary Coupland, who’s leading a 27-piece orchestra of players from Cowichan, Nanaimo and Victoria.
“I’ve done this musical at least twice before,” she said. “The music’s wonderful and everyone loves this show.”
Coupland really likes the show’s Edelweiss number so much that the audience will be invited to sing along.
Director Ridewood admitted to watching the film version every year.
“What’s not to love about Julie Andrews?” she asked, noting the song How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? as her favourite, despite her first name.
Ridewood recognized the irony of a family music set against a nasty political backdrop – maybe because her parents were born in 1940s war-torn Holland.
“Von Trapp doesn’t bow (to fascism) – he’s told to go with the flow, and that the Nazis will only be there for a while – and he says he can’t do that.”
Perhaps because he’s had an epiphany through his love for Maria.
“Von Trapp’s turned his children into little marching machines, and Maria brings laughter back into that house; it’s about the power of music, not just the sound of music,” she said.
The musical opens March 3 at 7:30 p.m., and continues March 4 at 2 p.m. Tickets $30; $27/members; $25/students. Please call 250-754-8550 or visit www.porttheatre.com.
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