- March 7, 2023, Tuesday.
- The hills are alive once more in Manila with The Sound of Music!! The stage production of The Sound of Music is here in Manila from March 7 to 26 at Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Ayala Malls Circuit. It was brought to Manila by GMG Productions, which also brought Matilda, the Lion King, Cats, and other big productions to Manila and the Asia-Pacific region. Though mainly an international cast, local artists Karylle and Markki Stroem appear in the musical as Baroness Schraeder and Rolf respectively. Tickets are still very much available in the official Ticketworld website (click here).
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| I feel more like Godzilla than Maria. |
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| Yay! I also tried to wear something trachten-inspired although I have a lederhosen and trachten suit at home. In hindsight, I should've gone all out! ("Tracht" or "trachten" refers to the traditional clothes of Southern Germany, Austria, and other related regions.) |
- For those who probably have never heard of "The Sound of Music," it is a semi-fictionalized story of the Von Trapp Family singers, who lived during the eve of the German annexation of Austria. The family is headed by Captain Von Trapp, a highly-decorated navy officer. He hired a governess named Maria Rainer who eventually taught the Von Trapp children how to sing. This stage production was originally done in the 1950s, although its most famous version is the 1965 film, starring Julie Andres and the late Christopher Plummer.
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| Edelweiss. |
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| You'll see this once you go up the escalator to the main lobby. |
- I've watched the movie over and over and over again throughout the years but seeing the musical alive will forever be a different immersive experience. This is the magic of theater. Since the musical is based on the stage production, some songs appear in scenes you probably wouldn't expect them to be in. Some songs in the film are also not in the stage production, and some songs are in the stage production but not in the movie. The pacing is also slightly different since the movie had an easier time bending time through montages, while the stage production had to be....a bit abrupt in some parts of the narrative. (I'm trying to be quite vague, for those who probably wish to watch.)
- Overall, I loved the performance! Jill Christine-Wiley and Trevor Martin as Marita and Captain Von Trapp were perfect. More importantly, I must say I now have a newfound respect for Markki Stroem - whom I normally ignore when I see on TV because I thought he was just one of those mestizo actors TV stations hire. I wasn't actually aware that he started out in showbiz as a singer, and that he was active in the theater scene in the Philippines apart from his appearances in TV and film. (This being said, I guess I need to watch more local productions too.) As for Karylle, I have seen her in local productions (top of my mind is "Rama Hari" in 2012), so it was no surprise that she gave life to Baroness Schraeder really well too! However, I guess a super minor concern would be the theater's microphone situation since there were some instances of the actors' microphones not working for a second or two. However, it didn't really affect the overall experience of watching the play.
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| Hills covered in blue....clouds? |
- I'm so glad I was able to watch the musical because I was actually saving money for something. However, God probably wanted me to see this because I earned a decent amount of money from a recent wedding I attended (I joined/was forced to join games in that wedding) and so I had some money to spare for a ticket. I love The Sound of Music so much I even did some sort of "pilgrimage" to the filming locations of the movie when I went to Salzburg a few years back (see here, here, and here). I'm hoping that more people would come watch since I was surprised that not a lot of people knew that the musical is currently showing. So why not take a chance? Go to the hills now, maybe your heart is lonely? Or climb ev'ry mountain, 'til you find your place....in the theater!
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