“The Sound of Music”

Let’s start at the very beginning.
Though every one of us (I hope) is familiar with the beloved movie, starring (the one and only) Julie Andrews, “The sound of music” actually started as a Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

After writing hits such as “The King and I”, and “Oklahoma!”, Rodgers and Hammerstein collaborated for one final musical, that follows the biography of Maria von Trapp. And they decided to name it…

“Love song”.

However, after their attorney practically begged them to change the title, they called it “The Sound of Music” of course. And thus the musical opened on Broadway, in November, 1959.

The musical’s won a Tony award for best musical.

A few words about the plot for those who’ve been having zero contact with the outside world:

“A tuneful, heartwarming story, it is based on the real-life story of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world’s best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II.  Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey becomes a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.”

It was, of course, the movie from 1965, which made the musical worldwide famous. And Julie’s amazing performance. The movie was filmed in the high mountains of Austria, and the beautiful city of Salzburg.

“The Sound of Music” has won an Oscar that year. (and I’ve been watching it since basically kindergarten, and is and always will be my favorite, ask me about it, seriously.)

Julie Andrews, who just finished filming for the role of Mary Poppins, was noticed by the director and cast immediately. “Let’s go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!”, he said, after watching “Mary Poppins”.

As for the leading male, the charming Captain von Trapp was a more difficult character to cast. Wise, the director, was considering many talents for the role, including Yul Brynner, but finally chose Christopher Plummer.

(Plummer learned to sing and play the guitar for this role, but eventually, he was dubbed.)

The two had been good friends ever since.

And how can we forget the childern:

The real-life Maria also saw and enjoyed the movie. More than that- she can actually be spotted in one on the scenes!

She’s later met with Andrews, and here how it went:

By the way, her real family is holding on to the family tradition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2ZIgpZwj8

If I can mention one of my personal highlights of the movie, is when the Captain sing “Edelweiss” in front of the crowd, and he chokes, and his entire family goes up on stage to help him finish the song. In my opinion, it sums up the movie beautifully, showing that the Captain may lost his beloved country, but he will always have his family.

And what about now days?

Well, 60 years later, the world still enjoys this great piece of art. The stars of the movie are still alive and well (almost everyone).

You can book a real trip in Austria, that follows the movie.

And the musical is being performed all over the world, from Japan to Brazil, and yes, even in Israel  🙂

I’ll finish with some fun facts about the movie because I am obsessed and this is my book:

• Julie Andrews nearly turned down the role of maria, because she’s found it too similar to the role of Mary Poppins.
• Nither the “real Liesl” nor the actress were actually “16, going on 17”.
• The von-Trapp family didn’t really escape Austria by “climbing over a mountain”.
• The song “I Have Confidence” was not in the original play.
• During the filming, Plummer used to go eat and drink in Salzburg quite a lot, which caused him to gain so much weight, that his costumes had to be redone.

One last song: