The Sound of Music at the Peace Center
If you’ve never seen The Sound of Music onstage, now’s the time to head down to Greenville, South Carolina, for the Peace Broadway production running through Sunday, Nov. 16. (Fair warning: There are very few seats remaining, according to the Peace Center.) This is a top-notch effort, with a likable, talented cast and grand staging.
We’ll assume you don’t need a plot summary and get right to it: Cayleigh Capaldi, as Maria, is a joy, and she makes the role her own from the outset. She’s girlish and uninhibited, animated and confident, and her singing voice is sweet and flawless. Her Maria has a certain physicality or athleticism that I haven’t seen before and works nicely onstage. Kevin Earley, as Captain von Trapp, gives the role a softer edge than you might expect, but since he still sells the noble man’s deep convictions, he achieves a nice balance — and holds his own vocally with Capaldi and the rest of the cast.
As always, fans who know only the movie may be surprised that Max (Nicholas Rodriguez) and the Baroness, Elsa (Kate Loprest), join in on a couple of songs left out of the film: the comic “How Can Love Survive” and the political “No Way to Stop It.” Indeed, the political and historical nature of the von Trapps’ eventual predicament is a more prominent theme onstage than on film, which may make you see Maria’s and the Captain’s romance in a slightly different light.
Christiane Noll (right) as Mother Abbess and Cayleigh Capaldi as Maria in The Sound of Music.
What else do you need to know? The children are delightful, expecially Liesl (the impressive Ariana Ferch) and Brigitta (the unstoppable Haddie Mac), and the nuns are in fine voice. The Mother Abbess is pleasingly maternal and even playful as portrayed by Christiane Noll, but she can also be formidable when needed. And she gives the anthemic “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” all the power and vibrato it needs… twice!
Kudos to director Jack O’Brien for the freshness accorded to every scene, and to music director and conductor Jonathan Marro and his orchestra for their thrilling performance. The costumes (by Jane Greenwood) are superb, and I especially liked the scenic design by Douglas W. Schmidt, which makes excellent (and blessedly subdued) use of projection technology but foregrounds a stunning array of actual set pieces.
Any time is a good time to revisit The Sound of Music, but audience members may find both its comforts and its discomforts particularly poignant in 2025.
The Sound of Music is playing at the Peace Center through November 16. For tickets and more information, visit peacecenter.org.
(Photos by Jeremy Daniel, courtesy of the Peace Center)
Cayleigh Capaldi as Maria in The Sound of Music.
