Book: Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse; Score: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. At: Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Wacker Dr. Tickets: 312-827-5927 or www.lyricopera.org; $29-$199. Runs through May 25
There are always pros and cons to staging Broadway musicals in opera houses, and they're apparent in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's new production of the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein classic The Sound of Music.
On one hand, you get all the musical and technical capabilities that an opera house can throw at a production, and they are undeniably top-notch at the Lyric. It would be hard for any local theater or national tour to duplicate the scenic spectacle by Tony Award-winning designer Michael Yeargan on display at the Lyric, nor would many be willing to provide a full orchestra ( led by the esteemed Broadway conductor Rob Fisher ) with a full contingent of live rather than synthesized strings.
But on the other hand, you lose any sense of intimacy in a nearly 3,600-seat opera house. Although the use of microphone amplification is better than in the Lyric's Oklahoma! from last year, there's still a sense of artificial disembodiment.
The Lyric is drawing from not only the opera world for its casting of The Sound of Music, but also from Broadway and Hollywood. It's no doubt that Billy Zane of Titanic fame appearing as Captain von Trapp is probably one of the major draws for new Lyric audiences. But unfortunately Zane's understated and rather bland performance underwhelms against the more established Broadway and opera cast contingents.
Broadway veteran Jenn Gambatese ( All Shook Up, Tarzan ) hits it out of the park with her perky take on Maria, the novice nun who is sent to temporarily care for a widower's seven children as Austria is on the verge of being absorbed into Nazi Germany. Another Broadway and Hollywood veteran, Edward Hibbert as the effete Uncle Max, also knows how to draw laughs and work over the crowd.
Opera soprano Elizabeth Futral is an all-in-performer with singing and acting, so it's unfair that she's been cast as the Baroness Elsa Schraeder who only gets to sing two of the three Broadway songs that were dropped for the film version. The Lyric better have a showier role for Futral in the future.
Also from the opera camp is soprano Christine Brewer as the Mother Abbess, powerfully handling the anthem "Climb Every Mountain" with majesty and grandeur. Headed by Brewer, the operatic choral ensemble of nuns is also vocally glorious.
Director Marc Bruni has also found a strong contingent of child actors for the von Trapp children, and they are naturally cute and thankfully not too cloying. Choreographer Denis Jones also contributes some strong storytelling via dance in the finely paired "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" number, featuring Besty Farrar as Liesl and Zach Sorrow as Rolf.
So be aware of the pluses and minuses of the Lyric's new Sound of Music. If you want to get up close and personal with the grand production, you'll have to pay some big bucks in order to do so.
