THE SOUND OF MUSIC National Tour Coming to Segerstrom Center in July

Tickets are on sale now for the brand new production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, directed by three-time Tony Award® winner Jack O'Brien. This lavish new production will make its Orange County premiere July 19 - 31, 2016 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts as part of a North American tour. Tickets for THE SOUND OF MUSIC start at $29 and may be purchased online at SCFTA.org, the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group tickets for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236. The 2 p.m. performance on Saturday, July 30, 2016 will include audio description, open captioning and sign-language interpretation.

BEN DAVIS (Broadway's Violet, A Little Night Music, La Bohe?me) will play Captain Georg von Trapp and MELODY BETTS will play The Mother Abbess with MERWIN FOARD as Max Detweiler, TERI HANSEN as Elsa Schraeder, DAN TRACY as Rolf and PAIGE SILVESTER as Liesl. The von Trapp children will be

played by JEREMY MICHAEL LANUTI (Friedrich), MARIA SUZANNE KNASEL (Louisa), QUINN ERICKSON (Kurt), SVEA ELIZABETH JOHNSON (Brigitta), MACKENZIE CURRIE (Marta) and AUDREY BENNETT (Gretl).

And introducing Jack O'Brien's brand new discovery, KERSTIN ANDERSON as Maria Rainer. A current student at Pace University, Ms. Anderson won the coveted role from hundreds who auditioned. This is her first national tour.

Director O'Brien had this to say about his leading lady: "In looking over a great American classic, like The Sound of Music, sometimes you stumble on something you wonder if anyone ever saw before. For instance, I was privileged to actually see Mary Martin in the original production - as I was myself just a junior at the University of Michigan. She was a great star, and she was giving a 'great star's' performance. She was at the apex of her career, and she was both brilliant and 46 years old.

"But in reading it privately, something caught my eye: Maria is probably, as a postulant, no more than six or seven years older than Liesl! She may be many things - a country lass, a climber-of-trees, a young renegade, but she is clearly NOT an established star! How interesting!

"I've always believed Maria was a 'star-making' part, rather than the leading role we remember from the movies and our experience; so I went looking for someone with star-making magic. And in through the audition door one day walked Kerstin Anderson, still studying at Pace University in New York. She opened her mouth, she sang, and the tears welled up in my eyes.

"If ever there were an enchanting young woman standing on the brink of discovery - this was it! And now, the discovery is about to be all of ours! Please, as I do - welcome her!"

The ensemble includes Carey Rebecca Brown, Ronald L. Brown, Ca?itli?n Burke, Christopher Carl, Kyla Carter, Patton Chandler, Daniella Dalli, Elisabeth Evans, Donna Garner, Meghan Hales, Jenavene Hester, Adam Hill, Darren Matthias, Kelly McCormick, Julia Osborne, Andrea Ross, Brent Schindele, Jim Schubin and Lucas Schultz.