- Performances: 1,443.
- Open / Close: November 16, 1959 – June 15, 1963
- Theater: Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
- Tony Awards: Nominated for 9, won 5. It’s Best Musical win is included as one of the rare ties in Tony history. The seven actors playing the Von Trappe children were nominated collectively as a Best Featured Actress, even though two of them were boys. Mary Martin’s win was her 4th and final Tony; her first was in 1948 while on tour for “Annie Get Your Gun” for “spreading theatre to the rest of the country while the originals perform in New York.”
- Fun Facts: In addition to the one above about Martin’s first Tony, another fun fact about her is that she reportedly had a photographic memory. As mentioned in the podcast, costar Theodore Bikel was the co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival, the site of the famous controversy around Bob Dylan going electric.
Podcast
With this episode, we reach an important milestone in “Chasing Phantom” history: this 64th episode marks the moment we pass the halfway point on the way up the list toward “Phantom of the Opera,” still the longest running show in Broadway history. In honor of that moment, the episode features one of my favorite shows, “The Sound of Music,” and a conversation with one of my favorite actors, Stacey Cabaj.
There was a run starting in 2010 when almost every significant female role cast in a musical in central Virginia went to Stacey. She was talented, sure, but she was also a magnetic personality, charming, smart, spunky, and delightful to be around. She had (and has) that gentle, soft-spoken but still emphatic wit that I associate with Canadians. She was the perfect choice to play Maria in “The Sound of Music.”
The production in Richmond included a powerhouse of talent both young and old, and my son’s appearance as Karl was a highlight of his young career. His participation in the production only cemented the show’s place in my heart, the movie version already becoming the most-played VCR tape in our library by a huge margin.
In our conversation, Cabaj and I talk about the show’s legacy, her personal journey in becoming a Maria, the longstanding impact of the show in her life even before appearing in it, and we broach the topics of faith and fascism that both feature prominently in the context of this show. Those deeper and darker themes reinforce how it’s not just a fun story of found family and kids learning how to sing.