Rachel Cahoon plays Maria Kutschera and Jeffrey Shankle plays Captain Georg von Trapp in Toby’s production of 'The Sound of Music.' The Broadway musical differs slightly from the film, but it includes all the sing-along favorites. Photo by Jeri Tidwell Photography

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Nearly everyone’s familiar with the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Indeed, most of us have seen the 1965 film based on the autobiography of Maria von Trapp — perhaps more than once.  

In the movie, Julie Andrews brought to life the free-spirited convent initiate Maria, who has spontaneous urges to sing, dance and roam the Austrian mountains.  

Her Mother Abbess, sensing she is ill-prepared for life in the convent, sends Maria on a mission to Salzburg to become the governess to seven motherless children in order to see if she is really suited to be a cloistered nun.  

After the governess returns music and song to the home of the grieving Captain von Trapp, played in the film by Christopher Plummer, the happy-go-lucky aspiring nun and the stern military officer begin to fall in love as World War II approaches. 

Differences from the film 

Toby’s Dinner Theatre is now presenting the stage version of the popular musical through January 12. Audience members will be thrilled by an old favorite, but at the same time may enjoy the many differences the original 1959 Broadway show offers from the film version, which won the Best Picture Oscar nearly 60 years ago. 

The viewer of Toby’s Broadway-based version will notice, for example, that songs often occur in a different order and context from the film.  

“My Favorite Things,” for instance, is sung at the beginning of the show as a duet between Maria and the Mother Abbess. “The Lonely Goatherd” is presented not as a puppet show but to soothe the frightened von Trapp children during a thunderstorm (a role “My Favorite Things” serves in the film).  

Jeffrey Shankle plays an excellent Captain von Trapp, navigating well the transformation of a stern naval captain to a character of greater sensitivity.  

Shankle is especially effective in bringing out a notable difference from the film, as the play presents his attraction to Maria as based on a mutual respect for each other’s values, not merely on her getting on well with the children, as the film implies.  

In the performance this reviewer saw, understudy Leela Aviles-Dawson filled the part of Maria with a sonorous voice and an engaging acting ability equal to the part.  

Adrienne Athanas stood out as the Mother Abbess with her excellent operatic voice in “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.” Similarly, those cast as nuns display their strong voices in the “Preludium” and in the wonderfully comic “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” 

The song “No Way to Stop It” (absent from the movie) — sung by Shankle, Asia-Lige Arnold as von Trapp’s love interest Elsa Schraeder, and David James, having great fun playing the opportunist Max Detweiler — shows that von Trapp is the odd man out in his unwillingness to compromise his ethics. Max and Elsa are all too prepared to capitulate to the Nazis in the impending annexation of Austria.    

Classic moments shine 

If the show is at its most interesting when it surprises — with unexpected placement and contexts of songs, as well as moments that reveal a character’s moral compass — the show is truly infectious in moments that tap into our memories of the original film.  

Director and choreographer Mark Minnick offers these wonderful vignettes almost as if we were present in the original Hollywood studio.  

The ballroom scene is one of the best instances that channels the Hollywood film. “So Long, Farewell,” or the goodbye song from the film, is perfectly recreated by the talented young Toby’s actors. 

The Toby’s production is at these moments very close to the movie and yet distinct from it, eschewing the temptation to present exact copies of scenes from the film. 

As usual, Minnick and his scenic designer (in this case, David A. Hopkins) use Toby’s theater-in-the-round and its concomitant lack of props to decided advantage.  

With a few simple props (a mountain mural, stained-glass windows or an elegant carpet and chandeliers), we are transported to the mountainside, convent, and a posh home of 1930s Austria.  

Supplementing this atmosphere (and providing a holiday ambience) is recorded 1930s dinner music of Christmas-themed records by 1930’s musicians Fats Waller, Tommy Dorsey, and Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm!  

This, of course, is not to understate the superb music direction of Ross Scott Rawlings and the performance of Toby’s excellent live band for one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most memorable scores. 

If one of your “Favorite Things” is to look for musicals for this holiday season other than typical holiday fare, this production of The Sound of Music is for you. 

Ticket information 

Before the show, Toby’s serves a multi-course, all-you-can-eat buffet with bratwurst, knackwurst and sauerkraut in addition to Toby’s usual wide variety of American fare. Dinner is served before evening performances and brunch precedes Wednesday and Sunday matinees.   

Depending on performance, tickets range from $84 to $92 for adults (those 65+ pay $74 for Tuesday evening or any Wednesday performance); children 4 and older are $64 to $67. Remember, the tips you leave for waiters also constitute the majority of the actors’ pay, so be generous.   

Tickets are available from the box office by calling (410) 730-8311 or online via Ticketmaster (with a service fee). Toby’s Dinner Theatre is located at 5900 Symphony Woods Road, Columbia, Maryland.