SOUND OF MUSIC tour cast announced

[ACL2006]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 12:27pm

Brown, Davis lead SOUND OF MUSIC tour

 

Anderson will be joined by Ben Davis as Captain Georg von Trapp andAshley Brown as The Mother Abbess with Merwin Foard as Max Detweiler, Teri Dale Hansen as Elsa Schraeder, Dan Tracy as Rolf and Paige Silvester as Liesl. The von Trapp children will be played by Erich Schuett (Friedrich), Maria Knasel (Louisa), Quinn Erickson (Kurt), Svea Johnson (Brigitta), Mackenzie Currie (Marta) and Andrey Bennett (Gretl).

The ensemble includes Carey Rebecca Brown, Ron Brown, Caitlin Burke,Christopher Carl, Kyla Carter, Austin Colby, Daniella Dalli, Elisabeth Evans, Donna Garner, Meghan Hales, Adam Hill, Jenavene Hester, Jeremy Lanuti, Darren Matthias, Kelly McCormick, Julia Osborne, Andrea Ross, Brent Schindele and Jim Schubin.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 12:31pm

Ashley Brown is Mother Abbess?  Whaaaa?? 

[theaterfan15]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 12:59pm

"Ashley Brown is Mother Abbess?  Whaaaa?? "

I am a fan of Brown's but she is way too young for this part. She should have played Maria instead. I was an expecting someone like Judy Kaye or a former Carlotta from Phantom of the Opera for Mother Abbess.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 1:00pm

Yeah, when I saw the headline, I thought Ashley Brown was playing Maria. She's 33.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 1:14pm

So Patricia Neway had just turn 40 when she originated the role on Broadway in 1959.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 1:17pm

This makes me feel bad for Ashley!  Well at least she'll have an easy show.  A couple scenes per act and call it a day!

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 1:19pm

I'd rather see Ashley Brown as Maria. I have no doubt her Climb Every Mountain will be gorgeous, but what a waste of her talents. 

[Tag]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 1:39pm

I can't imagine it would be historically accurate to have a Mother Abbess in her early 30s at a 1930's Austrian abbey.

There needs to be age behind her message in Climb Ev'ry Mountain.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 2:54pm

In the same way that some actors read younger than they actually are on stage (like Jose Llana in The King and I), Ashley sometimes reads older than she is on stage. Plus, who knows what type of make-up they would do on her.

[gcal]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 3:07pm

"In the same way that some actors read younger than they actually are on stage (like Jose Llana in The King and I), Ashley sometimes reads older than she is on stage. Plus, who knows what type of make-up they would do on her."

 Once Ashley is in the full habit, there won't be much real estate left for make-up.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 3:35pm

"I can't imagine it would be historically accurate to have a Mother Abbess in her early 30s at a 1930's Austrian abbey."

Accuracy hasn't been a theatrical priority for simply ages. I mean, does anyone think it was historically accurate to have a black Mother Superior in her early 40s?

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 6:49pm

Ashley Brown has several upcoming concerts posted on her website.  Since she's not the star of the SOUND OF MUSIC tour, this will allow her to take periodic time off for that lucrative side career.  The Mother Abbess is a cush gig for her.

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 8:26pm

excited by the notion of discovering a new talent but at the same time i wish that there was some star wattage with the casting

while I've never seen a stage production of TSOM, we all have seen the film a bizillon times and some stunt casting might have piqued my interest a tad more passionately

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 9:14pm

I've only seen TSOM once and it was at Paper Mill with Ben Davis as Captain Von Trapp -- he's excellent, so everyone go enjoy!

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 10:04pm

""I can't imagine it would be historically accurate to have a Mother Abbess in her early 30s at a 1930's Austrian abbey."
Accuracy hasn't been a theatrical priority for simply ages. I mean, does anyone think it was historically accurate to have a black Mother Superior in her early 40s?"

 Not to mention the number of historical inaccuracies that are just part of the script itself, no matter how casting goes, such as the time frame of when Maria came to the family, when they left Austria, and the fact that crossing those mountains on foot would have landed them squarely in Germany and not Switzerland.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 11:28pm

I'm happy Ashley brown is doing stuff again, but she needs to be Maria!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/21/15 at 11:36pm

Was just wondering where the heck she's been. She was riding that Disney paycheck hard. But then she just disappeared. 

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 12:10am

Jack O'Brien is directing this tour. It's being touted as a new production, not a recreation of any previous production.

And I would assume it's not going to Broadway because NETworks is producing it and they don't produce on Broadway. If it does exceedingly well on the road I could see it potentially coming in for a limited run here in NY, but for the time being it's a much safer bet to send it on the road, under the SET Agreement (which means lower salary minimums and thus lower operating costs), where it will be included in season subscription packages and have a much better chance at turning a profit.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 1:52am

""Ashley Brown is Mother Abbess?  Whaaaa?? "
 Yes she is far to young
Victoria Clark???
and why not a Broadway run instead of a tour? is this the version they did at Open Air or the other one when they did a reality show???
 "

Victoria Clark is not going to go out on a SETA tour in a small supporting role with one big song. 

 

[newintown]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 9:28am

"Not to mention the number of historical inaccuracies that are just part of the script itself, no matter how casting goes, such as the time frame of when Maria came to the family, when they left Austria, and the fact that crossing those mountains on foot would have landed them squarely in Germany and not Switzerland."

Delightfully funny and true. Like all shows that tout themselves as being based upon real people or events, The Sound of Music (and her sister The King and I) is pretty much a sentimentally entertaining compilation of lies designed to appeal to a crudely educated bourgeois audience.

The real story, warts and all, could make a hilarious show - one that would drive the middle-class tourist crowds screaming from the theatre in horror.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 9:58am

More on the "real story" of Maria and the von Trapp family:

Maria was orphaned at the age of 7. At 18, she graduated from a teachers' college, then entered the abbey as a postulant. Three years later (age 21), she was sent to teach the youngest von Trapp daughter (the mother had died the year Maria entered the abbey), and eventually began taking care of the other children as well.

After about a year, the Captain, 25 years older than Maria, asked her to marry him. She did (she stated in her memoirs that she didn't love him, but learned to later) in November 1927. She bore their first child three months after the wedding. She later tried to alter that child's birth date to 1 year later, but official documents show otherwise. So, clearly, the master of the house was diddling the governess, knocked her up, and had to marry her.

7-8 years later (1935), the Captain lost his money, having transferred it from a stable London bank to a failing Austrian one run by a friend. When the money was gone, they rented out most of their house to students.

Maria didn't teach the children to sing; that was done by Franz Wasner, a priest and friend of the Captain. The family began singing at concerts to help bring money in to the impoverished family.

In 1938, the family moved to Italy (by train, not hiking over mountains), then sailed to the US in 1939, where they stayed.

[musicaljen]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 11:28am

Ben Davis would be great. But Ashley Brown as the Abbess, what a poor choice.

[skies]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 5:23pm

Victoria Clark would have been a wonderful as the Abbess, but Ashley could be a novice herself in that convent.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 6:27pm

Davis was reportedly wonderful at Papermill in this role.

Brown will no doubt sing a glorious Climb Ev'ry Mountain, but the role is a colossal waste of her talents. I feel like it was only a couple of years ago she played Maria at the MUNY. 

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 7/22/15 at 6:36pm

I saw Davis as Papermill; he was fantastic.

And yes, the real story is quite different. The breakdown of the kids is different, for one, and I assume it was changed to add the Lisel subplot.