Director Katie Wilson has put together a deep cast for this family favorite, beginning with the stellar performance by Wendie Ward as Maria. Wendie has a clear, perfect voice for the part, and you can see her heart and humor from the opening song, as well as the inner childlike wonder in her as she “trips and falls on her way” through a rocky creek. All the more remarkable considering this is her first performance in six years.

She also proves to be a popular nanny/mother to the seven children, playing and bonding with them naturally during a thunderstorm where she calms them with a list of her favorite things. Those children consist of several great, young talents led by the versatile Kaitlyn Terrill as eldest daughter Liesl. She and Rolf (Tim Manns) create an exceptionally playful romance in Sixteen Going On Seventeen, and later Liesl’s fear for her father and feeling of helplessness is palpable. Taylor Peckham is a hoot as Friedrich, Kelli Plaisted is the blunt-speaking Brigitta, and Danica Waitley is the adorable little Gretl, joined by Kellie Mendenhall, Keith Walsh, and Sophia Anderson as the seven siblings who act very well like siblings.

Smooth-singing Dan Walsh is Captain Von Trapp whose life gets bowled over by his meeting with the new nanny from a convent. Almost literally, as Maria leapfrogs the kids and runs smack into the captain upon his return with his new fiancé. That fiancé is the wealthy heiress Elsa Schraeder played with diverting vanity and cattishness by the regal Katie Bogue. James Wigdahl is their charming sponge of a friend Max Detweiler. Patti Goodwin leads an angelic choir of nuns (who can also argue quite amusingly). She encourages Maria to Climb Ev’ry Mountain, which they truly do in the Mt. Helix amphitheatre.

Performs through July 22, 2006.

Rob Hopper
National Arts Digest