THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Do Re Mi were the notes echoing inside the Dominican School Auditorium

yesterday as the EM Productions from the University of Santo Tomas
conducted their much-awaited theatrical adaptation of Richard Rogers and
Oscar Hammerstein IIs The Sound of Music.
Upon entering, one will immediately notice the wide stage. It was really
spacious so it was surprising that they used minimalism in their set. Let us
take the first part for example. When the nuns were interacting with each
other while singing, the only set design was a table and a chair. There was no
other furniture apart from that. Actually, I appreciated the way it gave more
focus to the actors and provided more space for them to sing and dance.
However, it also made the the whole stage look empty. The projected
background images looked great, though. Some of them were even animated
so it seemed more believable. The props and costume should be commended
too because they looked nice on-stage. The kind of clothing that each
character wore not only gave the audience nice visuals to look at, but also
provided a hint as to what kind of person they were portraying. Mr.

Von

Trapp wore suits and always had his hair fixed. This gave the audience an
impression of a strict and well-organized father. The kids, who had similar
attires and were expected to behave properly, displayed an image of forced
obedience and fear. Maria, on the other hand, wore very comfortable clothes
which were not fit for a nuns role and it depicted a care-free person who
does not blindly follow rules especially if against her beliefs.
Moving on to the more technical parts of the play, the bad audio was very
noticeable (and disappointing). The words uttered were not audible and even
the lines from the songs performed were not understandable. There even
came a time when the lapel microphones were not working properly so it
gave the actors a hard time delivering their spiels and even served as a

distraction. The lights were nice, though. I can vividly remember the way
they played with it during a storm and I must say that it made the whole
thing more realistic.
The story, given that it was just an adaptation, deserve no bad remarks.
Even the songs chosen to be incorporated in the play were all good because
it placed smiles on the faces of the crowd as they sang along to the tracks
they grew up hearing.
Finally, moving on to the characters, Maria became a crowd-favorite because
of her wonderful voice. Her gestures need to be commended as well because
they looked very theatrical. Mr. Von Trapp had a nice voice too. However, he
looked a bit awkward on-stage because of his actions. The Von Trapp kids
unfortunately had the same problem. They all sounded beautifully but were
stiff and graceless visually. Some of the actors with minor roles also added to
the unpleasant view because they did not know some of the steps during the
dance numbers and the way they looked at each other every time they
forgot something really bothered me as an audience. The blockings were not
executed properly so the whole performance looked uncoordinated because
of those small flaws.
But even with those noticeable mistakes, I must say that the play was still
produced nicely. Patrick Celso, the director, deserves two thumbs up for a
good adaptation of this world-class play. Yes, there is still a lot more to
improve on but it can already be considered as a good show.
I got disappointed with some of the errors in the production but it honestly
gave me a refreshing theater experience.