The Sound Of Music Tickets | Schedule for 2024/2025 Events

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music musical is based on a memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, by Maria von Trapp. The book was written in 1949 and depicts the author's life as a governess to a large family.

Set in Austria in 1938, it is a story of love, family, friendship, and hope against the backdrop of the impending war.

The musical has lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Richard Rodgers, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It opened on Broadway in 1959 with Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel in the lead roles of Maria and Captain von Trapp.

The musical was nominated in nine categories at the Tony Awards and won five. It was performed in London in 1961. The musical was adapted into a feature film with the same title in 1965. The musical and the movie were a hit.

Background Information and Other Details

Rodgers and Hammerstein are a famous team of writing & music composers who worked on various hit musicals. The Sound of Music was their last collaboration as Oscar Hammerstein passed away less than a year after the musical premiered on Broadway.

The title track and other numbers like My Favorite Things, Do-Re-Mi, Edelweiss, and Climb Ev'ry Mountain have become so popular that they set a new standard in the industry. The musical is divided into two acts.

The musical starts with Maria singing on the mountainside. She is one of the postulants at the Nonnberg Abbey but more of a free spirit. Mother Abbess asks her to be a governess to seven children of a widower so that she can spend some time deciding if she wants to become a nun.

The job as a governess changes not just Maria's life but also the seven children who feel suffocated by strict rules and regulations and the captain's future as he and Maria fall in love. When the Nazis capture Austria, Captain von Trapp gets called back into the army. He and Maria decide to flee to Switzerland as he doesn't want to fight for the Nazis, nor can they stay back in a war-ridden country.

Though The Sound of Music musical is based on a book, it was the German movie adaptation that inspired Vincent J. Donehue, stage director, to create a Broadway musical with Mary Martin (his friend) in the lead role.