Interview: Lisa Howard Likes Making THE SOUND OF MUSIC

The Boch Center Wang Theatre will be alive next week with “The Sound of Music” when the final musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II returns to Boston on North American tour, November 17 through 22.

Based on Maria Augusta von Trapp’s autobiography, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” and set in Austria in 1938, the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic features a score that includes “Do-Re-Mi,” “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “So Long, Farewell,” and the title song.

But like most R&H shows – including “Oklahoma!” “South Pacific,” “Carousel,” and “The King and I” – “The Sound of Music,” set during the pivotal moment in World War II when Austria was being subsumed by the Third Reich, is about more than just a singable score. Indeed, the book is by the Pulitzer Prize-winning (“State of the Union”) writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who wrote the book for “The Sound of Music” at the Crouse family summer home in the village of Annisquam in Gloucester in the late 1950s.

The Tony Award-winning original Broadway production played out-of-town tryouts in New Haven and at Boston’s Shubert Theatre before opening 67 years ago this month at New York’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it starred Mary Martin as the young postulant-turned-governess Maria and Theodore Bikel as retired Austrian Naval Captain Georg von Trapp, a widowed father of seven. In 1965, the stage musical was made into a feature film -- with Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as Georg -- that earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Under the direction of the estimable Jack O’Brien – three-time Tony Award winner (“Henry IV,” “Hairspray,” and “The Coast of Utopia”) and the 2024 recipient of the Tony for Lifetime Achievement – the touring production features choreography by Danny Mefford.

Among the standout characters in the supporting cast is the Mother Abbess, being played in Boston by actor and singer Lisa Howard, who originated the role of Rona Lisa Peretti in the Barrington Stage Company, off-Broadway, and Broadway productions of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” appeared in "Titanique" off-Broadway, and played Siobhan in the 2012 feature film “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.” As the Mother Abbess, who grounds Nonnberg Abbey in the reality of the time, Howard lends her voice to “Maria” and “My Favorite Things,” and lets it soar on “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” long considered one of the show’s most thrilling musical moments.

An Akron, Ohio, native and graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a BFA in musical theater, Howard – who last played Boston in 2022 as Madame Morrible in the Munchkinland tour of “Wicked” – was on a Cincinnati tour stop recently when she made time for a Zoom call to discuss “The Sound of Music” and more.

When did you first become aware of “The Sound of Music”?

Oh, I couldn’t even tell you. I feel like I’ve always known it, because I would watch the movie version when it would come on TV once a year back before cable. I also had the soundtrack album, not the Broadway cast album, but I always loved the show. My mom would sing “My Favorite Things” with me, even as a toddler. So I feel like it’s always been a part of my life.

Have you appeared in prior productions of the show?

About 15 years ago, I played Mother Abbess at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. When the opportunity first came to me, I said to my agent, “What? They want me for Mother Abbess? I'm only 35!”

Initially, I was like, fine, whatever. I’ll go in. Then I worked on the songs and the scenes, and I began to see that this role is great. And then I ended up booking it. I did it all while thinking that I’d get to play the part again sometime in the future. I was waiting for it to come back around, and then it did.

Had that production and what you did with the role of the Mother Abbess then stayed with you over the years?

Yes, especially the songs. Obviously, especially after so many years, when it comes to the scenes and the dialogue, you have a vague recollection. I had to relearn all of that for this production. Since doing the Pittsburgh show, however, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” has been a part of my concert repertoire. I’ll probably always do it because it is such a piece of art.

Do you give that song a different treatment in concert?

Not really, because it is so good out of context. The feeling and the acting and the emotion behind the song is all the same. The staging might be simpler, of course, but I sing it the same in concert as I do in the show.

Is it safe to say that is your favorite song from this show, or do you have another that you also love?

That’s my only solo, but I also sing “(How do You Solve a Problem like) Maria” with the group of sisters, which is fun. And because I grew up with them, I love “My Favorite Things” and “Edelweiss,” both of which I sang as lullabies to my two sons when they were young.

I don't know if I could pick just one, but for me, being able to sing it for myself and in my repertoire, I would have to say that “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” is my very favorite. But it's very hard to choose from “The Sound of Music” because all the songs are quite special.

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