Customer Reviews

The Sound of Music - The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical (Applause Books) (Applause Libretto Library)

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While searching for the stage script and lyrics for "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" (which I never did find); I "accidentally found" this stage script for "The Sound Of Music." I decided to purchase it and I'm very glad I did. I wish this were a hardcover edition, but BRAVO to Applause Books, nevertheless, for publishing a handsome and sturdy Paperback edition.
Yes, this is the stage script of Rodgers and Hammerstein's critically reviled but universally adored final musical. This is the script as performed by the Original Broadway Cast in 1959. So don't look for the songs "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good." Those were written for the 1965 movie version and sometimes interpolated into later stage revivals. The reader or "The Sound Of Music" fan will find a few surprises inside, however.
Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were the playwrights who transformed the Trapp Family Saga into "The Sound Of Music": A Musical Fairy Tale." Rodgers and Hammerstein provided the beloved songs we now know by heart. But the atmosphere was bittersweet (Hammerstein was dying of cancer and passed away six months after the Broadway Premiere) and the script became bittersweet. Timothy Crouse, Russel's son, provides a detailed introduction; recalling his emotional reaction after reading the script for the first time; months before anyone else saw the show or heard the songs on stage. Oddly, Timothy never mentions Mary Martin, the star the show was created for in the first place, at all.
Timothy does not care for the 1965 movie version. He has a point there; since Ernest Lehman's screenplay re-arranges and in several instances removes a lot of the hard work his father and the rest of the creative team did for the stage play. In the stage play, the political threat of the Nazis is much more pronounced and front and center. The Captain and Elsa break up because she thinks the Nazis should be accomodated; and then they will likely disappear. In the movie, Elsa (portrayed in particularly abrasive- annoying fashion by Eleanor Parker) is a Wicked Witch; jealous of perky nun-governess Maria (played by a perfectly cast Julie Andrews). The movie removes the two cynical songs for Max and Elsa; "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way To Stop It"; the two songs which balanced out the sticky-sweet elements of the plot. With Lehman's Screenplay removing anything cynical and bittersweet, director Robert Wise was left with merely sweetness and light. Wise and his Director of Photography Ted McCord managed to create a movie that is visually stunning and often breath-taking. The movie also features an exuberant performance by Julie Andrews and a crabby, distracted and disinterested performance by Christopher Plummer. Somehow, Wise makes everything work in pure cinematic terms but "The Sound Of Music" makes more dramatic and logical sense on stage.
The book also features a Pictorial History of "The Sound Of Music." Photos include: Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel in the original 1959 Broadway Production, the real Maria Von Trapp pictured, at various times, with Mary Martin, Florence Henderson, Robert Wise and Christopher Plummer; Julie Andrews, having a personal and professional triumph in the movie version; photos from the first Austrian production in 2005, and Connie Fisher from the 2007 London Revival. In the strange photo provided from the 1998 Broadway Revival, Rebecca Luker looks like a mean, nasty Maria who would rather kill co-star Michael Siberry (as Captain Von Trapp) instead of kiss and marry him! Whoever is your "favorite Maria", this book allows the reader to have "The Sound Of Music" as they like it and want it; all in the theatre of imagination.

When I bought this book I was so exited because I love the movie. This is not the book at all. Worst book ever. What I found is a bunch of noncence about how the movie was made!!!!!