Friday, March 28, 2008
WEB EXTRA REVIEW: KNS' Sound of Music has it all

By PAM FIRMIN
 

BILOXI --

KNS makes magic with its 20th anniversary production of "The Sound of Music" that opens at 8 tonight at the Saenger Theater in Biloxi. Performances are also 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Down to the littlest player, who is 7-year-old Haley Sliker as 5-year-old Gretel von Trapp, everyone on stage seemed natural in their roles during an earlier-this-week dress rehearsal. Sliker's timing as the always-out-of-step Gretel couldn't be better, starting with her curt little stomp for attention when she first meets Maria, played by Meggan Gray.

If Julie Andrews hadn't already locked in the role 42 years ago, it could belong to Gray. She is so true to the familiar Maria that it's like she's playing Julie Andrews playing Maria, right down to the smile she keeps on her lips and in her eyes as she sings.

As the story begins, the impulsive Maria is lovingly outed from the Abby by Mother Abbess, played by Patty Thurber, who later performs "Climb Every Mountain" with Broadway strength and doubles as the show's vocal director. Maria is assigned a "temporary" position as governess with the near-by von Trapp family where she teaches the children to sing and the captain to love, all against the grim backdrop of World War II Austria.

A problem with doing a play like "The Sound of Music," where every nuance is known around the globe, is meeting people's expectations.

This production does that with classy staging, strong music and inventive players.

Hats off to director/choreographer Loree Dalgo, whose attention to detail during rehearsal foretells a highly polished performance by show time. There's help from Eleanor Johnson, assistant director and producers David Delk and Andy Dalgo.

In addition, the show's fun, with dashes of the unexpected.

Watch the children's antics as they learn from Maria to sing "Do Re Me," while bouncing exuberantly on and off furniture. A simple jump from the sofa becomes a gymnastic high leap with a mid-air split by the pigtailed Brigetta, played by Salvee Dalgo,13.

The music and the well-loved songs are just right, voices are strong, some incredibly so, including that of Sara Ann Boddie,15, as Louisa von Trapp. The liturgical songs from the Abby are breathtakingly clear and precise and the nuns are show stoppers.

While necessarily condensed, "The Sound of Music" KNS style is a seamless blend of relevant material and all of its songs. Matter of fact, it moves with such a good beat, few in the audience would change a thing.