The last musical I attended here at my local Highlands Lakeside Theater in Sebring, the show was a stage version of the film "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and, well, it was so bad I imagined myself to be Leonard Pinth-Garnell, the hilarious "Bad Theater" host/critic character of Dan Akroyd during his years on SNL.
Needless to say it was so bad that when Covid came it didn't even affect my choice over attending any performances for the past year since I wasn't going to anyway.
But now with Covid jitters easing and in celebration of the last night of unemployment (maybe) I decided to give in to the influence of that big billboard on the corner near my house and opted to give the ol' Sebring theater group another try.
I went to today's matinee showing and, as expected for this town, seating was jammed packed as usual and though there were posted mask requirements, clearly half the patrons just outright ignored them. Meh, I got half my vaccine. Of course it didn't make me feel better when some unmasked person in the row behind me sneezed then coughed through the performance. Oh fuck.
But super-spreader event aside, the show was "The Sound Of Music," one of my absolute favorites. And guess what, folks? From beginning to end they knocked it outta the freakin' park! I actually would have expected I was watching an Orlando production.
Mother Abbess (Christi Hagen), her actual picture above shot by a local newspaper, was played by the real-life wife of the actor playing Captain von Trapp (Steve Hagen) and she was the strongest singer by far. Her "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" was awesome, especially during the finale. Her acting, like her husband's, a little stiff and methodical. At one point, her white collar fell off unexpectedly and this slightly flustered her. She also seemed to mess up a line or two here and there but she recovered well enough. Steve's Captain was played very measured, maybe too measured 'cause he really lacked a lot of passion and this would have been most distracting if it weren't for the good, solid acting from Maria (Larissa Meagher) and doing a solid job singing those beloved hits such as "Do, Re, Me" and "The Sound of Music." Oh, but another salvation for good ol' Steve's Captain...he really did a bang up job with "Edelweiss."
Direction was on-point featuring complicated dance and musical routines, especially in regards to the children's numbers...these kids were flawless, in-pitch (really hard when considering tunes like the Act II reprise of "Do, Re, Me" and all the baroque weaves and trills and jovial yet very yodel-based "Lonely Goatherder" and the darling and endearing "So Long, Farewell."
Sound design got an upgrade from 2019 for sure. Yes, I was a bit more towards the stage than my past two visits here but I feel the audio would have been loud and clear anywhere. Yes, there were a couple feedback crackles here and there but it is community theater of course.
The lighting was great too, but I don't think that was a problem before. Now, the staging. Again, can we say "WTF?" Everything else looked great, even the costuming this time was so much better and way more pertinent to the time period. (The kids' looked like the costumes in the movie even down to the pattern used for their "play clothes" made by Maria from her bedroom curtains.) But please fire the set designer already. A person with talent could do so much better, even with your tiny town budget. It's called imagination. I mean, what was up with those pitiful babushka pink floral drapes in the very fake-looking mansion windows?
During the final scene when the Nazi official at the Festival realized the von Trapps have escaped, he calls for his brownshirts wearing actual swastika armbands to search the audience and they came around to us waving flashlights at us, row by row. That was a cute touch, yet a little scary.
Well I wasn't alone in my appreciation. The blue hairs pushed near their walkers, leaning on one another to prop themselves up for a rousing standing ovation.
Bravo, guys! Keep it up and I may have to retract my previous policy of So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Adieu.