STAGE REVIEW : Strong Student Cast Performs ‘Sound of Music’

The message is familiar: Climb every mountain, and if you happen to stumble along the way, get off your duff and keep going.

It’s not only the theme of “The Sound of Music,” but the attitude taken by the Fullerton Children’s Repertory Theatre in a crowd-pleasing performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical at the Fullerton Union High School last weekend. The play about the singing Von Trapp family can be seen again this weekend and next.

The occasional snafu--a costume’s hem trapping a wayward heel, a forgotten line here or there--was handled with good-natured ease by the cast of 41 fifth- through eighth-graders from the Fullerton area, who seemed to be on stage as much to have a good time and to learn about drama as to tell the story of Maria’s quest to find her dreams. (The eight youngsters portraying the Von Trapp children, especially, had a hoot with “The Lonely Goatherd” and “Do Re Mi.”)

Directed by Vickie Schindele and Alberta Strey, the show is designed to trigger howls from the audience: In one scene, “Germans” searching for the Von Trapps zero in on a few suspicious characters from the audience. Most of the players met the musical challenges fairly well. Megan de Sales, an eighth-grader at Parks Junior High, was a charming, sweet-sounding Maria; Joy Friesen as Sister Berthe and Tami Griffin as Mother Abbess (both Acacia School sixth-graders) also were strong. Bob Wilson’s sets are elaborate, and the costumes by Lueraecq Roberts and Bev Shirk are gorgeous.

Co-director Schindele says the play was double cast, with one set of players performing one night and another set the next night, enabling every member of the group to have both a speaking role and a secondary duty, such as work on the stage crew.

The Fullerton Children’s Repertory Theatre’s production of “The Sound of Music” continues at the Fullerton High School Little Theater, Lemon Street and Chapman Avenue in Fullerton, tonight and Saturday and next Friday and Saturday at 7:30, with Saturday matinees at 1:30. Tickets: $4. Information: (714) 870-6911.