It’s been a volatile year for the Kennedy Center. A new regime has taken over and is dictating beliefs and guidelines for programming. Agendas are being evaluated and redefined. Casts are refusing to perform and audiences and subscribers are reconsidering their support. Most disappointing, the crowning jewel of the organization, their critically and publicly acclaimed Broadway Center Stage Series, a concert series that evolved over the last seven years into the most prestigious regional theatre in the country with Broadway, Hollywood, and local talent combining for the highest quality theatre outside New York (occasionally higher), was put on hold. We witnessed art being dictated and influenced by politics, a very tenuous route to creation.
So many questions arise as the Kennedy Center launches it’s 2025-26 season amidst the height of the controversy. The first major tour to open the season appears to be a very safe production. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, celebrating the 60th anniversary of what many consider the quintessential movie adaptation of a Broadway musical, seemed an uninspired choice to set the tone of the season.
There was very little excitement about the entry. I mean, the movie is virtually perfect. And the tour is expected to capture the same magic without the regality of the Alps or the grandeur of Dame Julie Andrews definitive performance. The screenplay fixed the few weak spots of the stage script, and it has become required holiday viewing for a large percentage of the population, even those who are not musical theatre fans. How is a touring company of a 66-year-old golden age musical supposed to compete with those memories or excite a new generation who thinks musical theatre started with Hamilton?
Well, I am pleased to announce that the answer is: splendidly. Gloriously even. Forget the movie. And likewise forget very bad, cloying dinner theatre production you’ve seen of the musical after stuffing yourself on Salzburg Spinach Phunque and Baroness Schraeder’s Peel-n-eat Shrimp. No one saw this coming but, surprisingly, this beloved story is the exact thing we need right now in this uncertain artistic time. Rodgers & Hammerstein, looked down on by a generation that never even bothered to know them, are masters of lacing their wholesome, sometimes even saccharine, stories with complex layers of darkness and challenges for the protagonists, aided here by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s deft book (based on Maria von Trapp’s The Story of the Trapp Family Singers). Director Jack O’Brien perfectly balances the sweet with the bitter and delivers a perfect concoction that is both comfort food and a tantalizing delicacy at the same time.
Starting at the top, Cayleigh Capaldi in her most impressive national tour debut has a daunting job ahead of her, performing under the cloud of the divine Dame Julie Andrews who ruined the role for generations of aspiring Marias. The radiant Capaldi under O’Brien’s direction couldn’t have made better choices. She completely erases all comparisons with her superlative predecessor and fully embodies her own Maria von Trapp. Her melodious voice that flows flawlessly from head to chest and back starts the evening out on a strong note with her gorgeous delivery of the title song against Scenic Designer Douglas W. Schmidt’s impressive backdrop of the Alps (that is, as in the movie, present throughout almost the entire show). Her Maria also bears no attempt to physically resemble Andrews’ familiar pixie cut under the wimple. They wisely allow Capaldi to bring her own natural warmth and joy to the soaring classic score of R&H’s best of their best. She is reverent and apologetic with the Mother Abbess (Christiane Knoll), subservient but strong with the stern Capt. Georg von Trapp (Kevin Early), and gentle and understanding with the children, all in the most natural way with no staginess or posturing. Capaldi hits every right note, in every meaning of the phrase, the entire show. Her performance is the perfect new age Maria to build an old-fashioned, familiar story upon.
Vocally, she attacks the iconic score with a new veracity and enthusiasm that reins a very willing audience and balances a modern enough sound for a younger audience with a standard enough sound to pay homage to the glorious score. It’s hard to discern how much delight with the music is due to the composers’ mastery of music and flawless arrangements and how much is Capaldi’s stunning delivery of it. Let’s call it an equal 50:50 because there are no musical flaws to be found. The classic masters have found a beautiful new performer to interpret their work, each making the other’s job seem effortless.
Early (Les Misérables, Thoroughly Modern Millie) is a solid match for Capaldi’s Maria. The two have an easy chemistry as they transition from employer/governess to married couple. He has none of Christpher Plummer’s sometimes off-putting aloofness and distance with his children, just a very military sternness and commanding air. Capaldi is strong opposite him as he gently melts to see her point of view, on every level. His voice is strong and pairs well with Capaldi in, surprisingly, their only duet, the enchanting “Something Good” (fortunately lifted from the movie improvements to replace the original misfire “An Ordinary Couple”). Because the roles are non-singing in the movie, it shocks a little that Early sings more with the side characters of the Baroness Elsa Schraeder and Max Detweiller, who have more expanded roles in the stage show.
Broadway veteran Knoll (Ragtime, Dear Evan Hansen, Miss Saigon) lends the necessary gravitas to her role as the Mother Abbess while being incredibly adept at blending the Reverand with the Mother when it comes to Maria. Those only familiar with the movie will be surprised that the well-known standard “My Favorite Things” is in the stage version sung between Maria and the Mother Abbess before she sends her on her mission to the von Trapp residence. This usually awkward moment in most productions gives Knoll an opportunity to show some comic finesse and balance the authority with a gentle compassion. It also allows her to show her vocal versatility between the playful number and her to-the-top-of-the-Alps-and-back delivery of the stirring first act finale, an exceptionally powerful “Climb Every Mountain”.
As anyone who has ever seen this story from cinema to high school production knows that even with a stellar Maria, the musical’s success hinges on the seven key child actors portraying the von Trapp children. They have to be solid musical performers and good movers with engaging personalities and not a shred of the dreaded precocious stage child in their performances. Not only is this group of children perfect, they, like Capaldi, erase all memories of the familiar faces we associate with the movie. And all of them succeed in their own way. Ariana Ferch (Liesl), Eli Vander Griend (Friederich), Ava Davis (Louisa), Benjamin Stasiek (Kurt), Haddie Mac (Brigitta), Ruby Caramore (Marta), and Luciana Vandette (Gretl), all making their national tour debuts (except Mac who made hers as Marta in the 2023-24 Asian tour), all sing exquisitely and move adeptly through Danny Mefford’s thoroughly enjoyable choreography. More importantly, they all understand the need to function as a unit while embracing individual chances to stand out and shine when they are required. No show-off theatre kids in this group, just a corps of totally professional performers who happen to be playing characters aged 5-16.
Every child has their moment to shine, and they all rise to those moments, but the standouts are Stasiek as a very confident adolescent who refuses to be “God-bless-whats-his-name”, Vandette who is just too adorable, and Mac as an extremely observant and wise-beyond-her-age Brigitta who elicits more than her share of laughs (especially in a key scene on the night of the ball). And Ferch, of course, gets significant additional stage time in the side story of her first teen romance with telegram delivery boy Rolf (Ian Coursey), who are charming in their spotlight duet, “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”. While on first appearance, Coursey seems a bit more than seventeen-going-on-eighteen (like 24-going-on-25), but as soon as he opens his throat to sing, those clear golden tones emit on the intro that we are used to hearing, and the two embark on their intriguing journey on the trials of first love. We don’t care. We love him almost as much as Liesl.
As the side plot that derails the enjoyable main story of the young governess who wins over seven neglected children and reunites them with their cool, distant father, the outside world intrudes in the characters of the Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Kate Loprest), Capt. von Trapp’s intended (whether he intends it or not), and friend promoter Max Detweiller (Nicholas Rodriguez). For those unaware, here, this duo is more of a comedy act who play smoothly off each other. They sing witty songs (their first song cut from the movie, “How Can Love Survive?” is a light hearted romp of how two people as rich as she and von Trapp can manage to maintain a romantic flame when they have everything they need, and their second is a practically Cole Porter-esque “No Way to Stop It”, in which they glibly sing clever lyrics about the reality edging in from Germany) and finish each other’s punchlines, While it is hard not to miss the icy, manipulative, perfection of Elinor Parker “as the Baroness”, Loprest (First Date, Hairspray, Drowsy Chaperone) plays the broader comic strokes perfectly with Rodriguez (Company, Tarzan, The Toxic Avenger), who also relishes the broader lines drawn for the guest who overstays his welcome. It is to note that the duo also serve a darker interest in the stage version. They are not only observers of the on-coming Nazi Anschluss, they are accepting agents of it. Loprest and Rodriguez adeptly turn off the jokes as the climate becomes more serious.
The ensemble Nuns of the Nonnberg Abbey deserve special note for their glorious arrays of various “Allelujah”s throughout (which I so fondly remember singing in masses until that crappy day when the Catholic church decided that only horrible, atonal music could be sung in the Mass, but I digress…we’ll save that rant for Sister Act). I still have to laugh at the naughty side of R&H, who, in the midst of the most resplendent and opulent Wedding Processional every written, stop and have half the Nuns counter the melody talking smack about stunning bride Maria reprising “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” as she strolls elegantly down the aisle, an early highlight of the show performed by Knoll along with featured trio of dissonant Nuns, the adversarial Sister Berthe (Jade Litaker), the advocate Sister Margaretta (Tess Primack) and peace-keeper Sister Sophia (Meredith Lustig), all tossing off witty adjectives to gorgeous four-part harmony.
As perfect as the performances are, the show gets grand support from the designers. Scenic Designer Schmidt compliments his humble beginnings of the Abbey (an elaborate, incandescent rose window) and the above-mentioned Alps backdrop with a variety of smart translucent walls composed of a see-through pattern cleverly suggesting intricate Austrian lace, with easy transitions from interior (add a chandelier and staircase) to exterior (add a second-floor balcony).
Costume Designer Jane Greenwood’s designs are functional (how much can you say about nun’s habits, sailor uniforms, and play clothes, although they do look wonderful on Maria and the children), but she does seize the opportunity with gorgeous ballgowns and party attire when allowed. She fumbles two missed opportunities though. In an obvious attempt to youthen the obviously not “seventeen going on eighteen” Coursey as Rolf in his first delivery, she places him in lederhosen of an unflattering length at the knee when a standard delivery boy’s uniform would have worked better, and, yes I know I have to break with the glamourous Elinor Parker from the movie, but her day dresses for the Baroness looked quite off the rack, not the designer fashions of the era we’d expect. Her gold ballgown for her, however, was exquisite. Her concert costumes for the final scene give the von Trapps a bright and authentic farewell as they move on to their post-curtain third act.
Light Designer Natasha Katz turns in a memorable plot that contrasts the open air of the von Trapp home with the sequestered walls of the Abbey’s columns of light and shadow, especially as they stream through the rose window and the windows of the cathedral at Maria’s wedding.
Tom Watson’s Hair, Wig, and Makeup Designs are to be noted for deliberately going anti the looks we expect from the movie, which allow the actors to make these characters their own, and flatter them doing so.
But the biggest stars of this production are recent Lifetime Achievement Tony winner Director O’Brien (who has also won Tonys for his direction of Henry IV, Hairspray, and The Coast of Utopia), and Orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett.
Mefford, a Tony Winner for Kimberly Akimbo, Dear Evan Hansen, and Fun Home, shows some unexpectedly inspired dance here. The gorgeous waltzes at the ball and the accompanying laendler that utilizes the classic folk dance to give von Trapp and Maria pause to explore their feelings aside, the bulk of his work is confined to showcasing Capaldi and the Children which he does beautifully, and without drawing on any of the familiar visuals of the film. Yes there is the standard Swiss cuckoo clockwork theme of “So Long, Farewell” but it’s more intricate and 3-D than the usual, and his stormy night “The Lonely Goatherd” is quite physical for all the children as they speed through Hammerstein’s rapid-fire lyrics of –oat rhymes. His best work is in an inspired “Do-Re-Mi” during which Maria not only teaches the children the notes of the scale and the principals of singing, harmony, and countermelody, she also teaches the ASL for the notes of the scale which they carry through the entire song, so much the audience could almost learn it along with them. It’s a subtle but very effective addition, especially on press night when a group of hearing impaired audience members had their own interpreters within their groups.
O’Brien knows his classics and shows here that understands how to blend them with a modern sensibility without effecting the elements that made them beloved for generations. He guides all the iconic characters through the well-known stories and scenes but allows them to breath their own new life into them without desecrating our memories. He does a masterful job here, as expected.
Bennett takes an iconic score that most of us have grown up with. My mother and grandmother exposed me to the flawless movie album at the age of 5 and I have known every perfect note of the score, perfectly counterbalanced by the underscore ever since. But I have never heard these orchestrations swell yet somehow blend perfectly and take over the audience like I did this performance. Rodgers’ lush accompaniment arrangements deserve as much praise as his catchy and deceptively complex score, perfectly showcasing Hammerstein’s masterful lyrics, which range from clever and smart to emotional and stirring. I have always thought their opus The King & I was their most impressive score. As much as I adore that opulent and sumptuous music, press night may have changed my mind to the more popular answer here. This score was perfect and executed flawlessly by orchestra and singers. (with noteworthy praise for Kai Harada’s always crystal-clear sound design). Every song landed stronger than the previous. The show is that good.
So, lets go back to the very beginning (as Maria reminds us is a very good place to start). Straight up, this is the most beautiful production you’ve ever seen of a classic on stage, and at a time when we need this story and this artistic beauty more than ever. When the dark themes are echoed not only in threats of our headlines, but also in our artistic community. When politics are invading our arts and theatre and threatening what “art” is. This emotional and inspiring story of a family whose love, strength, and willingness to stand up for what they believe in is a lesson we all need to see. Delivered in the comfortable wrappings of a beloved musical we all know is a brilliant way to make that point. In a time when our art is becoming ever more political and polarizing, an exhilarating, uplifting night like this that brings an entire audience together is a great first step to reclaiming art for ourselves.
So I urge you, take a cue from the von Trapp Family and Climb Every Mountain (and hill, wall, and speedbump) between you and the Kennedy Center and experience this breathtakingly beautiful production of a show we never knew we needed to see until now. Witness the power of Art to lift your soul.
All photos courtesy of Jeremy Daniels
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 45minutes with one intermission
The Sound of Music currently plays through October 5, 2025, in the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington DC 20566. For tickets, call the box office at 202.467.4600 or purchase online