Mountain retreat

Of the nine musicals Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together, The Sound of Music was the last and one of the most financially suc-cessful. On Broadway, it ran for 1,443 performances, while in London it racked up 2,385 shows, a record that remains unbroken for an American musical.

Its chief drawback is its sentimentality or schmaltz, if you will. But its many virtues outweigh its weaknesses in the solidly acted, beautifully sung Walnut Street Theatre production. The show is freshly cast, elegantly designed and utterly unpatronizing.

The Sound of Music‘s history is stocked with memorable performers against whom newcomers must be measured — chiefly Mary Martin in the Broadway original and Julie Andrews in the hugely successful 1965 Hollywood film.

On this occasion, Luann Aronson, with a fine Broadway background in leading roles, courts judgment against these icons from the past. She sings beautifully, has an utterly infectious exuberance and projects a winning mix of guileless radiance and inner conviction.

Inspired by Maria August von Trapp’s The Trapp Family Singers, the popular collaboration tells of how abbey postulant Maria Rainer (Aronson) is assigned as governess in the household of widower Capt. Georg von Trapp (James Brennan). The intrepid young newcomer embarks on an educational reform program that captivates the seven von Trapp children and ultimately captures the heart of her initially stern employer. The menace of Nazism represented by Hitler’s 1938 Austrian Anschluss gives the plot its external impetus and climactic moments as the Trapps make a dash for the Swiss border.

Meanwhile, the Rodgers and Hammerstein score reminds us of the pair’s talent for creating the sounds of music and words that delight the ear and beguile the susceptible heart. In this respect, The Sound of Music belongs primarily to Maria and the children.

The writers originally planned to use the authentic German folk songs sung by the Trapps in their concerts. But Rodgers and Hammerstein rejected the idea, favoring a completely new score. Because they were working on Flower Drum Song, the show had to wait a year, during which it attracted audience interest and millions in advance ticket sales before its premiere in 1959. Oscar Hammerstein died of cancer nine months after the opening — Edelweiss being his last lyric.

If you read the book Maria, the story of Maria Rainer and Capt. von Trapp, falling in love took many years, but in this musical, it happens almost in one scene.

Brennan, who has frequently appeared in lead roles at the Walnut, is a noble but dull Capt. von Trapp. As for the children, nothing can top the unforced, unspoiled charm and beautifully blended voices of the Walnut’s Trapps, led nicely by Adrienne Young as the eldest daughter and Alyse Wojciechowski as the precocious second- eldest in line.

Others in the cast include John Charles Kelly, a confidently witty Max Detweiler and competent in the few spots in which he’s asked to sing; Ann Arvia as the Mother Abbess; Mary Martello, who deftly handles the ungrateful role of the rich woman the captain almost marries; and Bobby Steggert as the young Nazi with whom the eldest Trapp daughter has a brief flirtation. The fine casting also includes Lee Golden in superb form as the butler, and Jeffrey Coon, who played the lead in the last Walnut Street musical, here in a bit role.

The first act is good enough to propel this Sound of Music past its second-act deficiencies. There’s no reason not to build in a minute of suspense as the family, hiding from the Nazis in the abbey, comes face to face with Liesl’s brownshirt boyfriend Rolf Gruber.

The production makes efficient use of canvas backdrops but the final spectacle, as the family climbs the mountain, is all but obscured by the abbey, making the moment far less uplifting than it ought to be.

Colleen McMillan’s colorful costumes give the show a gentle charm. Jeffrey Koger’s lighting design is right on the money and director Charles Abbott keeps the production alive on its feet.

The Sound of Music
Walnut Street Theatre
825 Walnut St.
Through Jan. 5, with Thursday through
Sunday matinees at 2 and evening
performances at 8
Tickets: $10-$70
215-574-3550