Herndon High School The Sound of Music
By Cappies • Nov 17th, 2008 • Category: CappiesThe halls were alive with The Sound of Music at Herndon High School this weekend; their stage lit up by fabulous lighting, twirling skirts, melodic voices, and its own orchestra. The Sound of Music was the last musical Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote together and it opened on Broadway in 1959, running for 1,443 performances. It was brought to the silver screen in 1965 and won several Academy Awards.
With World War II looming ominously in the future, the seven Von Trapp children live an unhappy, strict life. Their father, a Navy Captain, still mourning the death of his late wife, hires governesses instead of taking care of the children himself. However, when he hires Maria, a novice from the convent with a love for music and fun, their life will be changed forever.
Kate Merryman gave an excellent performance as Maria. She conveyed her love for life brilliantly through her acting and pleasing numbers such as “The Sound of Music.” Rob Fowler also gave an effective performance as the hardened Captain. His strong acting and soothing baritone voice rounded up his character nicely.
The Von Trapp children really helped carry the production, with their quick wit and melodic voices. They worked well off of each other and it showed in songs like “So Long, Farewell.” Joel Grossman (Max Detweiler) also added to the production with his comedic performance. However, sometimes certain characters were lacking energy during some of the songs, but it would be quickly picked up again in the acting.
The set was fairly simple, yet effective. A few of the scene changes lagged, and sometimes microphones were left on when the actors left the stage, but the cast and crew adapted effectively. The pit orchestra was excellent and achieved a balance in supporting but not overpowering the vocalists. The lighting added to the production from the opening spotlight on the nuns to the sunset over the mountains at the end.
Herndon High School took The Sound of Music and made it a pleasure to watch.
by Katherine Foust of The Madeira School
This article can be linked to as: http://washingtondc.showbizradio.com/goto/2679.
Cappies is a program which was founded in 1999, for the purpose of celebrating high school theater arts and providing a learning opportunity for theater and journalism students. You can learn more at cappies.com.
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