The “Sound of Music” debuted on Broadway 50 years ago today, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. It ran for the next three and a half years, 1443 performances. In 1965, it was made into the movie starring Julie Andrews.
The hills of Manhattan may not be alive with the Sound of Music (there aren’t that many hills), but a bookstore near Lincoln Center will be this afternoon, with its songs sung by one of its original stars and by one of Broadway’s newest, Kate Baldwin of “Finian’s Rainbow.”
At 4:30 today you can meet Theodore Bikel and hear Kate Baldwin sing The Sound Of Music at a special event at the Barnes and Noble near Lincoln Center (Barnes and Noble, 1972 Broadway at 66 Street, 3rd floor Events Room). Also on hand will be Mary Rodgers (daughter of composer Richard Rodgers); Anna Crouse (widow of co-author Russel Crouse); veterans of the original Broadway company; Ted Chapin, President of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (; Laurence Maslon, author of THE SOUND OF MUSIC COMPANION. The event is from 5-6PM and will open with Kate Baldwin singing “The Sound of Music,” and will end with Theodore Bikel singing the song he first introduced to the world 50 years ago today: “Edelweiss.”
The original cast album has been reissued in a 50th anniversary edition. The number of hit songs from this one musical is a bit hard to fathom, and harder to get out of your craw:
My Favorite Things
Do-Re-Mi
Lonely Goatherd
Sixteen Going On Seventeen
So Long, Farewell
Climb Ev’ry Mountain
The Sound Of Music

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