The Sound of Music Story
By Tom Santopietro
St Martin’s Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.stmartins.com
97812500466, $25.99, www.amazon
“The Sound of Music Story” celebrates the 50 years of the film by telling many behind the scene facts about the classic movie. Some of the things Santopietro reveals are the problems getting the consent from the von Trapp family to produce “The Sound of Music” as a Broadway stage play, the search for someone to write music, the real story of the von Trapp family, the evolution of the stage play to film. When it was established there would be a film there were the problems casting the different roles. Among the choices for the female lead Grace Kelly, Leslie Caron, Anne Bancroft, Angie Dickinson, Carol Lawrence, and Shirley Jones were bandied about until Julie Andrews was picked.
Some of the names for Captain Georg von Trapp were Rex Harrison, David Niven, Richard Burton, Yul Brynner, Sean Connery, Bing Crosby and Peter Finch until Christopher Plummer was cast in the role. Oddly enough he turned it down when he was approached for the original stage production. With some arm twisting, he consented to play the role for film. The production moved along afterwards casting the other members who would play their parts.
When “The Sound of Music” first appeared it met with negative reviews from critics around the world but it was the people who made it the success it became. It stayed in theaters for over 4 years because patrons could not get enough of the von Trapp family on the big screen. There are also the actors reminiscing about their roles and things they did after the film. Now that “The Sound of Music” is on Blueray and DVD and looking better than ever, “The Sound of Music Story” is the perfect companion to enjoy the film even more.
