‘The Sound of Music’ coming to Gardendale

Published 10:07 am Wednesday, July 16, 2008

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Next week, the hills of Gardendale will be alive with “The Sound of Music.”

The popular Rodgers and Hammerstein play about an Austrian nun’s time spent with the von Trapp family in the shadows of Nazi Germany is being produced and sponsored by the Gardendale Arts Council.

The musical will be performed July 24-26 at 7 p.m.

The cast and crew have been rehearsing at least three nights a week since June 1. Mostly recently, rehearsals have been six nights a week in preparation for next week’s performance.

Directing the play is Darrell Revel, who previously worked as a drama teacher at Mortimer Jordan High School and most recently, taught at Shelby County High School in Columbiana.

Revel said the arts council committee wanted to stage a play that would be a large show and employ a big cast and technical crew. The committee also wanted a variety of actors, from small children to adults.

“Given all those parameters, I made four suggestions,” Revel said. “The Sound of Music’ was the one they chose.”

Revel, who has experience working with community theatre, said he had directed the musical about six times before. “This has been one of the most pleasant,” he said.

However, staging the musical is not without its challenges, he said. The production will be staged in the Gardendale Civic Center’s exhibition hall, which Revel said is not the most ideal setting for a large production.

The production will also feature at least 30 performers, including three male and four female leads. Having such a large cast means having to rehearse around different schedules.

Matching up actors with the perfect role can also be a challenge, he said, though not as difficult as telling a prospect that he or she wasn’t good enough for the play.

“I had 30 kids, any one of whom could have played the part,” he said. “The worst part is calling a 6-year-old and telling them they didn’t get the part.”

Revel described the local talent pool as “fairly amazing” and noted that while the play is being staged in Gardendale, there is participation from residents from Morris, Kimberly, Warrior and even Helena.

The play itself is one that most audience members will likely be familiar with, though Revel said the play is a little different from the movie version starring Julie Andrews.

“The drama in the play hinges on the impending Nazi invasion of Austria,” he said. “It’s historically accurate and deals with what will happen to Austrian war heroes when the Third Reich invades.”

However, the musical does feature the popular songs, “The Sound of Music,” “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Every Mountain” and “Do-Re-Me.”

Arts council member Greg Maxwell said an audience’s familiarity with those songs means pushing harder to get them right. “Many in the audience will know the lines and for sure, most of the lyrics to the songs,” he said. “That leaves no room for error.”

Tickets are on sale now for “The Sound of Music” at the Gardendale Civic Center for $10. Revel said the family-friendly musical will offer something for all ages.

“The talent is from this community and they’ve all worked very hard to make it a quality production,” he said. “You can bring your grandmother, kindergarten children and everybody in between. It’s something everybody will enjoy.”