Viewing page 35 of 47
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
CATNIP FOR CAPTAIN VON TRAPP [[image – color photograph of actor Richard Chamberlain, wearing an old-fashioned gray suit in Austrian style sits on a stool playing a guitar]] by Harry Haun Richard Chamberlain brings his considerable charm and star power to Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music "The women of a certain age are smiling. Looking into the faces up and down the aisles, you can see the pleasure in their eyes, sense the frisson the moment holds. Now they are breaking into warm and unexpectedly sustained applause; it's only a kiss, for Pete's sake. More to the point, it's only The Sound of Music. "But the reaction is more than an expression of collective approval for the marriage plans of Captain von Trapp; there is something else going on between this actor and audience. Surveying the faces across the rows once more, the eyes appear to be clouding up with the mists of teen-age crushes that have never completely burned off. 'Oh, yes,' their girlish grins declare. 'We go way back.'" The ever-perceptive Peter Marks, in a re-review of The Sound of Music, had no trouble recognizing the clever ploy being used to reconstitute this Rodgers and Hammerstein tuner and pump it back into the American mainstream: Simply throw the show to the martinet man-of-the-house, and let Maria and his kids do their musical thing around him. Cast accordingly with Richard Chamberlain (who came to prominence as TV's "Dr. Kildare" in the fall of '59, just as The Sound of Music reached Broadway), the result is catnip for matronly latent-bobbysoxers who – under the convenient cover of taking their children to some G-rated escapism – still harbor some unresolved lust for the good doctor. It's hard to say which looks better after 40 years – show or star – because both deliver the goods. Chamberlain brings a certain cinematic sheen to the proceedings, looking to all the world like the Richard Chamberlain of old up there onstage – giving a real movie-star performance that meshes well with the show's other smoothly operating components. Not till the curtain call when he surrenders to the obvious, gesturing to his hard-working Maria – Laura Benanti – to take a bow after him, does one realize the show's shrewd sell. And even then, Chamberlain gains rather than loses star points because the gesture is (never mind realistic) gracious and generous, and the mass swoon that follows is audible. "It's not the man's show, that's true," Chamberlain allows right off the bat, "but Captain von Trapp changes more than anybody else. At the beginning of the play, he 52 WWW.PLAYBILL.COM [[arrow shaped mouse pointer]] PURE THEATRE ONLINE [[end page]] [[start page]] [[advertisement]] Damn the tuxedos, full speed ahead. [[Image – color photograph of a black Lincoln Navigator cornering on a shining road, on a background that suggests it is going under a tree and then into a tunnel – the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge tower can be seen in the far distance behind it]] Black tie is optional but a 300-horsepower V-8 is standard in the world's most powerful luxury SUV.* There's room for seven in three rows of leather-trimmed seats. And up to 8,850 pounds towing capacity. Call 800 688-8898, visit www.lincolnvehicles.com or see an authorized Lincoln Navigator dealer. *models built after 12/8/98 [[image - Lincoln logo]] Lincoln Navigator. What a luxury [[image – Lincoln Navigator between 2 very large square brackets]] should be. [[/advertisement]]
