The ultimate family musical is back in Los Angeles and filling the Hollywood Hills-adjacent Pantages Theatre with The Sound Of Music as the 1959 Broadway classic pays L.A. a three-week visit under the inspired direction of three-time Tony winner (and bona fide National Treasure) Jack O’Brien.

As you probably already know (unless you’ve spent the past six-and-a-half decades living under a rock), Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s book brings to song-filled life (if not necessarily 100% historical accuracy) the lives of Austria’s world-famous Trapp Family Singers, a nonet headed by patriarch Georg and his second wife Maria, the latter of whom had initially joined the von Trapps as governess to the widowed Navy captain’s seven children, ages 5 to 16-going-on-17 in the year 1938.

Not that nun-in-training Maria (Cayleigh Capaldi) had any intention of becoming a live-in teacher/caregiver when she entered the abbey, but that was before Mother Abbess (Christiane Noll) came to wonder if the postulant deemed “a flibbertijibbet, a will-o’-the wisp, a clown” by Sisters Berthe (Lisa Rosetta Strum), Margaretta (Tess Primack), and Sophia (Meredith Lustig) might be better suited to life in the outside world.

And so Maria arrives at the von Trapp manor only to find one distant father and seven unhappy children seriously in need of The Sound Of Music.

Needless to say, it doesn’t take long for the children to be harmonizing to “Do-Re-Mi” and the heretofore by-the-book-(and-whistle) Captain (Kevin Earley) to find himself smitten, much to the consternation of his millionairess lady friend (and wannabe fiancée) Elsa (Kate Loprest) and Georg’s pragmatic pal Max (Nicholas Rodriguez), who sees showbiz fame and fortune in the Trapp Family Singers’ future, that is provided he can convince Georg not to defy the Nazis in Austria-adjacent, soon-to-be-invading Germany.

Over the years, The Sound Of Music has gained somewhat of a reputation for being too sweet for its own good, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a young woman about to discover that fate may have other plans for her than the future she thought she wanted, a man who has shut himself off from any sort of human emotions, let alone love, and seven children forced to grow up too soon.

Oh, and there are also those pesky Nazis, whose presence casts a dark shadow over the von Trapps’ future (and the second half of Act Two).

All of this adds up to two-and-three-quarter hours of romance (both adult and teenage), intrigue (both by the marriage-hungry Elsa and the Austria-hungry German Nazis), and above all some of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s most glorious songs.

Director O’Brien’s attention to detail is evident from the moment Maria and Mother Abbess launch into “My Favorite Things.” (I love how he has the latter jotting down a written list of Maria’s faves so as not to forget them.)

And it continues throughout the show as he elicits one well-rounded performance after another, his and choreographer Danny Mefford’s work supported on tour by associate director Matt Lenz and associate choreographer Mark Myars.

Earley, whom L.A. theatergoers will recall as L.A.’s go-to young leading man in the early 2000s, gives Georg nuanced shadings and depth in addition to his patented Broadway pipes, and he couldn’t ask for a more incandescent leading lady than Capaldi, whose sweet and spunky Maria sings with the voice of an angel.

Noll, with Broadway and touring credits a mile long, is warmth and wisdom personified as Mother Abbess, and her “Climb Every Mountain” is as stirring as inspirational ballads get.

Elsa and Max are deliciously brought to life by Loprest and Rodriguez, neither of whose spicy duets get cut in this time round as they were in the movie, with Lustig, Primack, and Strum earning deserved chuckles for their trio of singing nuns.

Choreographer Mefford’s “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” has an Agnes de Mille quality reminiscent of her Oklahoma! and Carousel dream ballets, gracefully performed by Coursey’s handsome, charming Rolf and Perch’s lovely Liesl.

A veritable who’s-who of Broadway greats give this Sound Of Music an absolutely stunning production design, from Douglas W. Schmidt’s Technicolor Alps and his gasp-inducing backdrop for the Kaltzberg Concert Hall Stage to Jane Greenwood’s delightful curtains-turned-playwear to Natasha Katz’s romance/drama-enhancing lighting to Tom Watson’s just-right 1930s dos to Kai Harada’s crystal-clear mix of amped vocals and live instrumentals.

A breathtakingly beautiful orchestral backdrop is provided by musical director/conductor Jonathan Marro and a Broadway-caliber pit orchestra.

John Adkinson and Jennifer Malenke are terrific as the Trapp Family butler and housekeeper as is the entire featured ensemble whose names are too numerous to list here, and child performers Torben Mularski, Skylar Matthews, Reece Boyle, Haddie Mac, Berkeley Waluk, and Everly Beeson are every bit as talented as their elders.

The Sound Of Music may have reached the ripe old age of sixty-seven, but to quote an Oscar Hammerstein II lyric, it’s still as “fresh and alive and gay and young” as it was back in 1959.  This pitch-perfectly produced and performed Broadway-caliber revival is guaranteed to give audiences of all ages abundant reasons to cheer.

*Fun fact: An escape over Maria’s beloved mountains would have taken her and the von Trapp Family Singers smack dab into Nazi Germany and not into Switzerland, 200 miles away.)

Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles. Through May 24. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 Fridays at 8:00. Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00. Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30.
www.broadwayla.org

–Steven Stanley
May 6, 2026
Photos: Jeremy Daniel

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Broadway In Hollywood, Howard Lindsay, Los Angeles Theater Review, Oscar Hammerstein II, Pantages Theatre, Richard Rodgers, Russel Crouse