Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:10:18 -0500
From: "Jim Menke" <jim99jr-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: [Puptcrit] Salzburg "Sound of Music"


This is a write up describing the Salzburg "Sound of Music" by an on-line
critic. It seems obvious that he does not care for puppets in general. Has
anyone seen the show?
 How Do You Solve a Problem Like
...<http://www.theatermania.com/peterfilichia/permalinks/2007/11/19/How-Do-You-Solve-a-Problem-Like->

48 years ago last week, Rodgers and Hammerstein were preparing for the Nov.
16, 1959 opening of *The Sound of Music*. And while I can see them saying to
each other, "We got a hit on our hands," or even "What a movie this'll make
someday, for it can utilize all those glorious Austrian mountains," I'm sure
neither Dick nor Ockie said, "And someday, this'll be a show done by
marionettes!"

Nevertheless, *The Salzburg Marionettes' The Sound of Music* recently played
the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. That engagement was part of a tour that
will come to Newark next week, New York the week after, and few places after
that. So if you plan to attend and see the bevy of two-foot-tall
marionettes, stop reading. However, if you don't expect to get to the show,
well, as Passionella sings in *The Apple Tree*, "That's what I'm here for."

So I modestly took my place in the Perelman Theater, seemingly the only
adult in the house without a child. Some kids were already singing
"Doe-a-deer," but most of them were not doing any of my favorite things
while waiting for the curtain to rise. I'll spare you the disgusting
details, but I saw plenty of them during the 1:45 show.

The curtain went up on a hill that did indeed seem alive, for it was
essentially a big tent that shimmed when Marionette Maria skied down it as
if she were on a water slide. We all know that she climbs a tree and scrapes
her knee, but this Maria could leap tall mountains at a single bound, as
Christiane Noll provided her voice.

Because Noll is currently busy with* Frankenstein*, she was not on hand.
Earlier this year, she sang to a pre-recorded track, along with Martin
Vidnovic (The Captain), Crista Moore (Elsa) and Jonathan Groff (as both Rolf
and Friedrich). They sang to the Bratislava Orchestra, which sounded fuller,
more lush, and Hollywoodian than we hear in our Broadway pits. Of course,
with the pre-recorded score, that meant the sound came from speakers and not
mouths, but we're used to that now on ol' amplified Broadway, aren't we?

There were surprises in the song-stack. Which did you think director Richard
Hamburger chose when Maria and Georg commit =97 the stage show's "An Ordinary
Couple" or the film's "Something Good"? In fact, neither, which made sense.
Watching two marionettes just standing there and doing nothing wouldn't be
much fun, especially in a presentation ostensibly earmarked for kids, who
hate ballads anyway.

"My Favorite Things," though, was where the movie has it, in the spot the
stage show used "The Lonely Goatherd." By the middle of the first act, after
I wondered if we'd see a replication of the movie "Goatherd" =97 where
marionettes would manipulate marionettes =97 I realized that the moment had
passed, and that the production simply dropped the song. I was disappointed,
but understood. For a puppeteer to manipulate one pair of hands must be
hard; doing four would have to be monstrously difficult.

That "How Can Love Survive?" was cut came as no shock, but I was astonished
that the oft-dropped "No Way to Stop It" made the cut. All the rest of the
stage score was there =97 though I was also amazed that "I Have Confidence in
Me" wasn't included, because it's both sprightly and famous. Sure, Maria
doesn't do much in this number, but I could see her passing by all sort of
marionette creatures on her walk from the convent to the mansion.

Speaking of those: In "Do Re Mi," the tail wagged the doe, for we saw an
adorable little deer marionette emerge during the first line of the famous
refrain. Would we see a needle pulling thread or a cup of tea nestling next
to jam and bread? No, that's where Hamburger drew the line. I don't think he
was implying that deer ran rampant through the von Trapp mansion; I suspect
that he simply had a deer marionette hanging around, and decided to put it
to work.

All the marionettes =97 and their puppeteers, of course=97 provided a good deal
of fun. When Max dropped in, he really dropped in =97 from the top of the
proscenium arch. I was impressed how Vladimir Tikhonov made Rolf smoothly
glide over to Liesl and get on one knee. I loved the way Pavel Tikhonov had
a seated Max deftly cross his legs, and, later, how he allowed him to do
awfully high kicks during "No Way to Stop It." He even got Friedrich to do
push-ups.

There were times that the strings were pulled to let the marionettes do what
actors ever could. The kids swung like tolling bells in "Do Re Mi." At the
end of the "16 Going on 17," Rolf put Liesl on his bike, and they took off =97
I mean, really took off, levitating a la Elliott and E.T. over the
mountains. When Georg and Maria danced or the first time and realized their
love, they literally had their feet off the ground. When Maria returned, the
von Trapp kids did handstands and shimmied up poles in delight. During "No
Way to Stop It," a little globe of the world bounced in, and Georg, Max and
Elsa played it with, bouncing this beach ball here, there, and everywhere.

But imagine my surprise when Maria first went to talk to the Mother Abbess =97
and a genuine, hulking human being invaded the small puppet stage. I'm not
kidding: She was a real person. She lip-synched "Maria," though not well. (I
was later told that she's German, and English may not even be her second
language.) But having her lip-synch to "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," the score's
most dramatic song, to a "person" so much smaller made for an odd stage
picture.

At intermission, I was told by someone close to the production, "That's the
director's concept." People have to realize that "That's the director's
concept" cannot be used to whisk away every objection. By definition, there
must be good concepts as well as bad concepts. I'd say this was a bad one.
Besides, it's not as if Hamburger were trying to save the cost of a
marionette; indeed, the first act ended with the Human Being Mother
lumbering off-stage, while a marionette Mother Abbess took her place. So why
bother having a Big Mother in the first place?

The second act began, and the children in audience were audibly restless.
The Sound of Music, for all its kid-friendly moments, is ultimately an
earnest show about the Nazi threat; somehow the difference between
light-hearted and serious seemed to be a greater gulf in a marionette *Sound
of Music* than in a standard populated-with-real-actors *Sound of Music.* So
just as the show was wending its way to its conclusion, out came that deer
we first met during "Do Re Mi." Okay, we had no idea what it was doing there
this time either, but, fine, it was cute enough to see again. And suddenly
we heard a gunshot =97 and the deer's head was blown off.

Yes, you read that right. It exploded into a dozen or so pieces. There were
audible gasps, moans, and screams from both children and adults. Anyone
who'd been nodding off sure got a rude awakening. The hills may have been
alive, but the deer sure wasn't. And that's when another Genuine Human Being
=97 one in a Nazi uniform =97 was seen, waist down, walking across and
overwhelming the puppet stage, holding a rifle. Another "director's
concept," and another bad one.

But Hamburger redeemed himself during the curtain call. He stripped the
masking off the proscenium arch, and let us see all nine puppeteers
manipulating Maria and the von Trapp kids all manipulating puppets of their
own in =97 yes! =97 "The Lonely Goatherd." It was an inspired ending which made
me think of the logo for another '50s iconic musical: *My Fair Lady, *where
Shaw has Henry Higgins on strings, who in turns has Eliza on strings, too.
Hmmm, think we'll get a *Salzburg Marionettes My Fair Lady* in the
near-future, which would use as its logo a puppeteer manipulating Shaw
manipulating Higgins manipulating Eliza? Just you wait.


-- 
JIM MENKE PUPPETS
open your mind
fantasies unwind

-- 
JIM MENKE PUPPETS
open your mind
fantasies unwind
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