Spend 15 Hours With Captain von Trapp! Sound of Music's Ben Davis Eats His Way Through Los Angeles | Playbill

News Spend 15 Hours With Captain von Trapp! Sound of Music's Ben Davis Eats His Way Through Los Angeles The brand new Sound of Music national tour, directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O'Brien, officially opened at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Ben Davis, who stars as Captain von Trapp, shared an action-packed and cuisine-heavy day with Playbill.com!

Spend 15 Hours With Captain von Trapp! Sound of Music's Ben Davis Eats His Way Through Los Angeles

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The production closed in Los Angeles Oct. 31 and is no tour North America for multiple seasons, playing multi-week and week-long engagements.

The cast is headed by Kerstin Anderson as Maria Rainer. A student at Pace University, Anderson won the role from hundreds who auditioned. This marks her first national tour. Anderson is joined by Davis as Captain Georg von Trapp and Ashley Brown as The Mother Abbess with Merwin Foard as Max Detweiler, Teri Hansen as Elsa Schraeder, Dan Tracy as Rolf and Paige Silvester as Liesl. The von Trapp children are played by Jeremy Michael Lanuti (Friedrich), Maria Knasel (Louisa), Quinn Erickson (Kurt), Svea Johnson (Brigitta), Mackenzie Currie (Marta) and Audrey Bennett (Gretl).

The ensemble includes Carey Rebecca Brown, Ronald L. Brown, Cáitlín Burke, Christopher Carl, Kyla Carter, Patton Chandler, Daniella Dalli, Elisabeth Evans, Donna Garner, Meghan Hales, Jenavene Hester, Adam Hill, Jeremy Michael Lanuti, Darren Matthias, Kelly McCormick, Julia Osborne, Andrea Ross, Brent Schindele, Jim Schubin Lucas Schultz and Aviva Winick.

The production is choreographed by Danny Mefford (Fun Home, The Bridges of Madison County and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson)  with music supervision by Andy Einhorn (Bullets Over Broadway, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Brief Encounter, The Light in the Piazza). The design and production team comprises Douglas Schmidt, set design (Tony Award nominee: 42nd Street, Into the Woods); Jane Greenwood, costume design (2014 recipient of the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), Natasha Katz, lighting design (five-time Tony Award winner: An American in Paris, Once, Aida, The Coast of Utopia, The Glass Menagerie) and Ken Travis, sound design (Aladdin, Newsies, Memphis). Casting is by Telsey + Company/Rachel Hoffman, CSA.

The Sound of Music has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and is suggested by "The Trapp Family Singers" by Maria Augusta Trapp.

Director O'Brien previously stated, "The Sound of Music has been in our ears for decades, as it deserves to be. But it might be time to look once more, and more closely, at this remarkable work which, I feel, begins to reveal itself as deeper, richer, and more powerful than ever. It’s no longer ‘your mother’s’ familiar Sound of Music. We are tearing off the varnish of the past from one of the great glories of our theatergoing experience and making it fresh! This is an opportunity we’ve all longed to create!”

O'Brien's Broadway credits include Hairspray, The Coast of Utopia, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and this season's It's Only a Play.

Ted Chapin, president and executive director of Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, added, "The Sound of Music continues to be the world’s most beloved musical. When a major national tour was suggested, I not only agreed, but was willing to roll up my sleeves and do whatever I could to fashion a new stage production that would re-engage today’s theatergoing public. The show was originally created for Broadway, and seeing it on stage only reinforces the power of the story and the score. And with Jack O’Brien at the directorial helm – well, we simply couldn’t do better. Landing somewhere between The Coast of Utopia and Hairspray (shows for which Jack won the Tony), his production will be smart, focused, and surprising. I can’t wait."

For more information visit TheSoundOfMusicOnTour.com.

 
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