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Review: ‘Sound of Music’ delivers all your favorite things in Costa Mesa

June 4, 2026

Happy to announce that “The Sound of Music,” at Segerstrom Center for the next 10 days, remains a satisfyingly spry 66 years old, its enduring, endearing appeal largely in place in this touring production.

Through astonishingly engaging earworm melodies, smart, sincere and heartfelt lyrics and a universal theme of a damaged family made whole by a naive outsider helping them persevere, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s final musical fails to age or fade.

In fact, the biggest challenge facing any live production now is that the main point of comparison is the 1965 film version, with Julie Andrews’ incomparable voice eternally setting the bar for the show’s greatest hits.

Adjusted for inflation, the movie version continues to be the most financially successful film of a musical ever made. Poor “Lion King” and too bad for “Wicked” (even counting its second part). “The Sound of Music” remains the mountain they can’t climb, the problem of Maria they can’t solve.

Cayleigh Capaldi stars as Maria Rainer in “The Sound of Music,” playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts through June 14. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)

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Cayleigh Capaldi stars as Maria Rainer in “The Sound of Music,” playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts through June 14. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)

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A rarity these days in a live staging, the show comes our way under the keen, curatorial eye of veteran director Jack O’Brien. Another seemingly ageless wonder, in his program mini-bio the several-time Tony winner merrily dismisses his own longevity, going third person to note: “If he’s slowing down, he hasn’t noticed it yet.”

In 2015, O’Brien was entrusted with mounting a live national tour. His stated goal for “The Sound of Music” was to “tear off the varnish of the past,” emphasizing the gritty realities in the Nazi-period plot rather than goo-ily trading on the cozy sentimentality of cute kids singing on stage, which feebly accounted for uncounted homegrown mountings across the latter 20th century.

A decade on, O’Brien has returned to actively shape the characters again with a fresh next-gen cast. His workload was certainly lightened with the casting of Cayleigh Capaldi as his Maria.

Capaldi is not just another bellowing belter, but a true soprano with a flexible middle range and sustained articulation in her phrasing.

During her first sighting, Capaldi’s assured announcement to the audience in C Major that those “hills are alive” immediately deflates that impossible competition all Marias face: OK, it’s not Julie. But we’re going enjoy “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” and pretty much every fabled note of Maria’s we came to hear sung live.

Capaldi is interesting, too, in character. Those nuns at the abbey, trying to get their hands around Maria, sing in puzzlement “How do you find a word that means Maria? A flibbertigibbet? A will-o’-the-wisp? A clown?”

None of these remotely apply to Capaldi’s relatable portrayal. Shuttled off down the mountain to take care of widower Captain von Trapp’s seven kids, she might be confused about finding herself, but there is a take-charge whiff of feministic backbone built into Capaldi’s interaction with every adult character she encounters and contends with.

These adults are headed by Kevin Earley, who early on makes for a starchy rather than stern Captain. He is earnest enough, but that ineffectual whistle he blows at his staff and kids alike seems less militaristic and more like the uniformed crossing guard nobody pays attention to.

Earley does a nice job of melting from patriarchal martinet to open-hearted dad in hearing the children’s harmonies for the first time when they sing the title song. Vocally, he is a nice enough fit with Capaldi in their romantic duet “Something Good.”

Enough with the oldsters, what about those kids? From eldest Liesl (Ariana Ferch) (, who is satisfying as a doting eldest as well as being of courting age, to pipsqueak Gretl (Everly Beerson), who draws a suitable number of “ahhhs” from the audience with every squeaky word, the children’s ensemble is everything you want.

There is no credit given for vocal coaching, but these pliant voices are a galvanizing harmonizing unit in the treasured “Do-Re-Mi” and “So Long, Farewell.”

As for the other key adult roles, Kate Loprest fills the bill as the transactional Elsa, a half-hearted rival with Maria for the Captain’s hand, but seemingly more drawn by the scenic view from his porch and the money it represents than taking a political stance to stand by her man.

Nicholas Rodriguez glides along as Max, a dandified musical impresario of self-acknowledged slight character who also proves to have pliant political backbone.

Broadway veteran Christiane Noll dons full habit as the Mother Abbess, perhaps the adult with the most insight — or at least interest — into what makes Maria tick.

Noll employs unceasing vibrato to power through reasonably successful first act and show closing belts of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

The pit orchestra of 14 under music director and conductor Jonathan Marro’s handling, does justice to Robert Russell Bennett’s original and still gorgeous orchestrations.

Jane Greenwood’s costume design is impeccably period; especially fun are the children’s rustic outfits Maria has sewn from old curtains.

A periodic drawback to the physical production is its fit onto the Segerstrom stage. As long as action takes place at the Captain’s mansion, nicely illuminated, things are fine. But the black, confining nunnery space reminds a bit of some medieval dungeon.

A further oddity at the show’s end is an upwards sloping pathway the family takes its leave on, the kids trundled by parents to freedom from the Nazis up a graded ramp that might be more environmentally apt in some temporary forest exhibit across the street at South Coast Plaza.

These grumbles aside, if you’ve never seen “The Sound of Music” live this might be your last chance for a full production on a big stage.

And, also, the best one you may get, too.

‘The Sound of Music’

Rating: 3 ½ stars (out of 4 possible)

When: Through June 14. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m., Sunday

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa

Tickets: $39-$169

Information: 949-556-2787; www.scfta.org

Review: ‘Sound of Music’ delivers all your favorite things in Costa Mesa Orange County Register

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Review: ‘Sound of Music’ delivers all your favorite things in Costa Mesa

‘The Sound of Music’

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