Hammerstein’s Last Work
The legendary musical that was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein sadly turned out be the last time their last collaborative work. Just nine months after the first Broadway premiere, Hammerstein died of stomach cancer.
It would be amazing if Hammerstein saw him stage hit succeed as much as it did on screen.
A Broadway Flop
Before the 1965 film, it was a Broadway play. It opened for the first time at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959. The highly anticipated event was met with some serious disappointment, as most major New York critics hated it. According to many, it was far too sentimental and saccharine for their liking.
Unfortunately, the producers had already invested around $2 million in order to advance ticket sales. Looks like the film version had better luck.
It Was Almost Never Called The Sound of Music
Long before the play and film got the title The Sound of Music, it was actually going to be named something completely different. That's right, according to Broadway.com, the classic story almost got the name, The Singing Heart.
The title that we all know and love certainly has a great ring to it.
Georg von Trapp Was a Sought After Role
The early 1960s was filled with amazingly dashing leading men. This made the casting process rather difficult, with the likes of Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Bing Crosby in the running to play Captain von Trapp.
In the end only one man could be Georg von Trapp. That man was Christopher Plummer. He sure did nail it. While many couldn't be happier over this choice, some critics took issue with certain abilities, or lack there of.
Is Christopher Plummer Actually Singing?
In a 2012 NPR interview with Christopher Plummer, the actor actually admitted that it was not entirely him singing. He said that for the longer passages it was dubbed by singer Bill Lee. "It was very well done. The entrances and exits from the songs were my voice, and then they filled in - in those days, they were very fussy about matching voices in musicals. And Julie, of course, had been - you know, trained since day one"
The actor talked about how hard it was to match Julie Andrews. "Tone perfect since she was in her cradle, which is an exasperating thing to admit. And it was awfully hard to match her and her sustained, long notes."