Former cast members return to see 'Sound of Music' at Notre Dame Regional High School

A chorus of nuns and an eloquent Maria Rainer, played by Notre Dame Regional High School student Kaitlyn Robinson, singing on a mountain opened the student production "The Sound of Music" on Sunday.

About 650 people attended the final performance of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

A cast of more than 50 performed four shows from Thursday through Sunday, attracting about 2,500 total audience members, but around 150 students were involved in making the production a success.

"As far as sales, our original seating was pretty much sold out," said Cynthia King, director of the student production. "We had maybe 10 to 15 tickets left" for Sunday's show.

For a few shows, ushers had to add chairs to the seating area to accomodate additional audience members.

The Sunday night show was also a small reunion of men and women who were part of the "The Sound of Music" cast in 1966, the last time the musical was performed at Notre Dame.

Mary Lou Grayson, known as Mary Lou Buhs in high school, traveled from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to see the production she was a part of in the 1960s. Grayson played Maria and was enthusiastic about watching the show Friday and Sunday with her mother and sister.

"It was fabulous and it was such a wonderful memory for me," said Grayson, who hasn't performed in a play since her high school days.

A number of things about the play were different for Grayson, though, including the costumes, which she said were much nicer than they were for the 1966 performance.

"We brought our own or made them ourselves then," Grayson said.

Dan Todt, also part of the first performance of "The Sound of Music" at Notre Dame, brought his old script with him to Sunday's show. Todt said he was a fifth-grader at the time and played Kurt, one of the seven von Trapp children.

"I remember almost all of my part," he said. "I auditioned at the playground."

He said a nun at the old St. Vincent's grade school asked him if he liked to sing and if he would audition for the play during a recess at school. The 1966 production included students from both St. Vincent's and Notre Dame.

Before the final performance, Brother David Anthony Migliorino, principal, said he was proud of his students for putting on a show full of many moral and life lessons.

"It seems like everyone's in the right part," he said. "It has just been triumphant."

ehevern@semissourian.com

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