The movie version of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” is a classic example of how the movies made from stage plays tend to change too much, so that the final product actually looses the intended force of the original.

Before I start on the negative, let me first say a few good things about the movie version. Of course, the cinematography was wonderful and the live shots added a certain variety of pictorial beauty to some of the numbers which would have been impossible in live theatre. The adding of the puppets for the “Lonely Goatherd” number was a nice touch, even though it caused the number to be done out of order from when it was done in the play.

This is my main complaint with the movie: that it played fast and loose with the original stage version, which I consider to be a masterpiece of musical Theater. Although I only saw the complete original version only once at a dinner theatre in St. Petersburg years ago I still have a tape of the original cast recording (I use to have the record but I sold it.).

First of all in the Play, “My Favorite Things” was sung by Maria and the Mother Superior at the Abby, as Maria tells her of her love for singing. It’s seen as a song that both know and can sing loudly. The movie version leaves out the duet at the Abby and brings in an entirely new song by Rogers called “I Have Confidence” for when Maria arrives at the Captain’s home. This is alright, but I feel unnecessary. The next song in the play is Maria teaching the children to sing with “Do Re Me.” Thus it comes earlier than in the movie.

When all the kids come running scared to Maria’s bed, they sing a song which apparently they had known before their father had forbidden music, “The Lonely Goatherd.” Here is where the movie puts “My Favorite Things” and I must admit that it does seem to work well here the way they do it in the movie. So I must admit that the changing places of “My Favorite Things” and “The Lonely Goatherd.” even with the addition of “I Have Confidence” do work well for the movie as does the pictorial time-lapse version of “Do Re Me.”

My main complaint about the movie has to do with what they did from this point onward. In the play, the next song is a farcical ballad sung between the Captain, the Baroness and Max just after the two arrive at the Captain’s home, “How Can Love Survive?” In it, the durability of a love between two rich people is questioned. This song was left out entirely from the movie. The reason why I see this as a big mistake will become clear later.

Then, in the movie, after the Captain hears the children singing and once again begins to accept music, this is where they put the “Lonely Goatherd” with the elaborate puppet show which seems to appear from nowhere suddenly.

But the main difference between the play and movie seems to be that the movie focuses only on Maria and romantic elements while the play, while also focusing on this, in addition also focuses on the captain and the political situation of the day. Of course the impending takeover from Germany is hinted at in the movie, but it is more focused upon in the play. And what you realize from the play, but may miss entirely from the movie is that this and the captain’s refusal to give in to it is the reason for his break up with the Baroness and thus his eventual marriage to Maria. By the way, in the play, it wasn’t the Baroness but one of the children who first suggested to Maria that she and the captain might be in love, thus causing her to return to the Abby. The contrast between the Captain’s political view and that of Max and Elsa is even played up in song in the original stage version, with “No Way To Stop It.” Following the song, Max has to return a phone call to Germany and The Captain tells Elsa that if she really believes in Max’s idea of compromise, they have nothing in common and have to call of the wedding. Thus, although he had had tinges of feeling for Maria from the beginning, as he next relates to her, he didn’t feel free to follow them because of his impending marriage to Elsa. Now he could be free to follow his heart and marry a woman who had been only a nun and a governess. And since he was planning to refuse his commission with Germany, he may not be captain any more and they would not be two rich people getting married, but simply “An Ordinary Couple” as the next song in play puts it. Instead of this song, the movie put in another Rogers re-write called “I Must Have Done Something Good.” I really don’t like that song at all as it seems to mitigate against my Calvinistic concept of the grace of God. But I don’t really want to bring theology into this.

So you can see how the movie version changed the play. Another thing I didn’t like about the movie---and this happens in many musical adaptations—it drew out the action scene at the Abby, where the Germans were searching for them, leaving too much time without music for a musical.

Well, I guess there’s no use voicing my complaints because I suppose we will never see the original stage version as it was meant to be. I thought I was going to last week, when “Curtain Call” presented their version. I even called and asked if was based on the play and they said yes. However, they also left out “How Can Love Survive” and “No Way To Stop It.” And they substituted “An Ordinary Couple” with “I Must Have Done Something Good.” When I asked why, the man who took our money told me they couldn’t get the royalty rights to the other song. Apparently the estate of Rogers and Hammerstein is limiting acquisition to the songs. Well, at least I’m glad I held onto the original cast album, even though it’s on tape. And who knows, maybe one day there will be a revival which will stick to the original. We can only hope. In the meantime, I doubt that I’ll watch the movie again.
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