Sound Of Music Turns 50: Broadway Hills Still Alive
BROADWAY MAGAZINE—Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the musical The Sound of Music. It started because of Audrey Hepburn. In 1958, Vincent Donehue was asked to create a film on the Trapp Family Singers with Hepburn as the star. Instead, he brought the project to Mary Martin, who brought in Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse to write a story and in turn brought in Rodgers and Hammerstein to compose a song. What eventually resulted was the iconic Broadway musical The Sound Of Music, and the new 50th Anniversary edition of the Broadway Cast Recording with Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel sounds like it was recorded yesterday.
The magicians at Sony’s Masterworks Broadway have brought state-of-the-art technology to bring this cast album up to modern standards of quality. The clarity must be heard to be believed, and with a line-up of brilliant numbers from My Favorite Things, Do-Re-Mi, Lonely Goatherd, Sixteen Going On Seventeen, So Long, Farewell, Climb Ev’ry Mountain and The Sound Of Music itself, this recording is truly a treasure. There is a freshness in Martin and Bikel’s performances that allows one to re-experience the musical apart from the more familiar sounds of Julie Andrews and the cast of the film.
Also, today at 4:30 you can meet Bikel and hear Kate Baldwin sing The Sound Of Music at a special event at the Barnes and Noble near Lincoln Center (Barnes & Noble, 1972 Broadway at 66 Street, 3rd floor Events Room). Also on hand will be Mary Rodgers (daughter of composer Richard Rodgers); Anna Crouse (widow of co-author Russel Crouse); veterans of the original Broadway company; Ted Chapin, President of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (RHO); Laurence Maslon, author of THE SOUND OF MUSIC COMPANION. The event is from 5-6PM and will open with Kate Baldwin singing “The Sound of Music,” and will end with Theodore Bikel singing the song he first introduced to the world 50 years ago: “Edelweiss.”
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