REVIEW: Re-telling a story whose message still sings

There is no better time for ‘The Sound of Music’ than now.”

Las Cruces Community Theatre director Norman Lewis

It's a date!

The Las Cruces Community Theatre’s production of “The Sound of Music” has one more weekend of performances: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 14-16, and 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 16-17, at 313 N. Main St.

Las Cruces Community Theatre
313 N. Main St.
Las Cruces, NM
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“There is no better time for ‘The Sound of Music’ than now,” Las Cruces Community Theatre director Norman Lewis says in his notes on the production, now in its final weekend. “In a world of so much cynicism, pain, anger and uncertainty, we need a story of love and commitment and courage. And God knows, we need a happy ending.”

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical debuted in 1959, based on the memoir of Maria Rainer Von Trapp. It’s set in 1938 Austria, with the specter of the Third Reich looming.

With that backdrop, and the current world climate to which Lewis refers, it would take a bit of magic from crew and cast to break through the darkness with the joy at the heart of the story.

For LCCT? Mission accomplished.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s music is brilliant and timeless, but we all have Julie Andrews’ 1965 movie performance embedded in our brains from dozens of TV watchings.

So, if any local performance is going to work, the Andrews character of Maria has to be acceptable and believable. In other words, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”

For LCCT? Mission accomplished.

Francesca Perez-Wright, an LCCT veteran, inhabits the role with the sincerity and even the kind face Andrews brought. However, you might not have anticipated her powerful voice. After the play, audience members raved incredulously about the wonder of Perez-Wright’s performance.

She’s complemented by a large and talented adult cast, but throughout the show, they are at times overshadowed by the seven delightful actors playing the Von Trapp children. The play calls for ages ranging from 7 to 16, and there are two sets of local children in the roles: a “red” cast and a “green” cast. For the performance I saw, it was the green cast, a group with sweet voices and lively physical and facial expressions. Though she had the softest voice, young Halia Joy Dalager, a first-grader at Hillrise Elementary School, often drew big audience reactions. Think Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and you’ll get a sense of how young Dalager periodically stole the show.

Halia Joy’s mother, Hannah Dalager, was also in the show, deftly playing the Von Trapp housekeeper.

Another show-stealer was Holly Mesarch, who knocked down the house with her rendition of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” just before intermission. Speaking of intermission, the 15-minute break is welcome during this show that lists a running time of nearly two and a half hours, but goes by quickly because it’s so engaging.

I’m not sure how one of this musical’s signature songs, “My Favorite Things,” grew into a Christmas classic. But the holiday feel of that song, the generous spirit of the actors and the musical’s enduring message of joy all set the stage for director Lewis’ wish that you “open yourselves anew to a story of finding happiness and fulfillment in love, music and moral courage … I hope you find that we have done it justice.”

For LCCT? Mission accomplished.

Visit lcctnm.org, call 575-523-1200 or stop by 313 N. Main St.