Town and Country Players’ 75th Season Features Beloved Musical Whose Detractors Are a Nun-Issue

The Town and Country Players' production of "The Sound of Music" opens July 15.Image via Town and Country Players, Inc.

Town and Country Players 75th season continues in July with a production that has special resonance in Bucks County. The Buckingham troupe, a Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce Member, is staging The Sound of Music.

It’s a show tied to the county, given composer Oscar Hammerstein II’s Doylestown residency.

However, audiences at the live version may be startled by the changes made to the original Broadway stage production.

The basics are the same: Novice nun leaves her ministry and falls in love with brusque widower and his seven children.

But some details were altered in the story’s filming by 20th Century Fox, namely:

• The songs “My Favorite Things,” “Do, Re, Mi,” and “The Lonely Goatherd” are at different points in the screenplay than the original script
• “I Have Confidence,” Maria’s travel-to-the-mansion sung soliloquy, did not exist, although some stage productions added it afterward, bowing to audience expectations
• Max and Elsa had two songs that were both eliminated in the transferal to the screen, although the melody of one survived as a waltz underscore
• The Captain/Maria’s stage duet, “An Ordinary Couple,” became “Something Good”

Many of the alterations were designed to rethink the script in cinematic terms; others were simply a way to spotlight the singing talents of Julie Andrews, whose four-octave soprano voice was a major draw at the time.

Still, the musical’s over-arching themes — family, patriotism, faith — keep it relevant.

Show dates, times, and ticket information for this production of The Sound of Music are available through the connected link on the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce website.