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every so often I remember that once I saw a comment in defense of hamilton going "oh, but the sound of music isn't chronologically accurate to the kids' ages or timelines of these people meeting/fleeing austria, either, are you mad at that???"
meanwhile 1. most people do not know the von trapps are real, which like... once again illustrates my point about duty to truth when you represent real people & history, because the lies told to sell a story quickly overtake all fact. and really, I could stop there!
but, 2. there are no slave owners in the sound of music, and 3. if the play's creative liberties had been abused to lionize the nazis or something, then yes, I'd have a BIG problem with it, obviously—
plus, 4. I was in the ensemble for this play in high school, in a very german town in wisconsin (so german that there was a pretty regular amount of day to day friction that held steady between the catholics & lutherans in town, before you even got into how folks felt about the polish, hmong, and chicanos in the city), and when we put the show on, a very old man came up to all the girls dressed as nuns and mentioned that he'd met the von trapp kids before, we were talented but not as talented as them (lol), but that maria terrorized those kids & forced them into singing professionally to pay the bills, so maybe it's all for the best that we didn't have to perform that on stage after all. I took him at his word at the time because the internet was not as strong as it is today, but like... it turns out that part is true, which is fucked up!
I can't necessarily blame her since it seems like the angry outbursts may have been mental illness based on the description of how her moods seemed to change on a dime (not that abuse is ever justified by mental illness, nor is it a symptom, but explosive mood swings can be); and I greatly dislike parents pushing children into exploitative labor in show business, but it was also the great depression & the parents sang, too. that's also no excuse for abusive treatment, but I get why the family would turn to that & why then the stakes were so high before the kids were free to choose different careers.
but at the end of the day... yeah, there's many reasons one could take issue with the portrayals of these real people as fictionalized characters in deeply fictionalized scenarios in the sound of music!
like I know it was meant as a "gotcha" example of an innocuous family friendly (white) musical, but it didn't work... and that comment sticks with me because all I can think is like. me at 14 or 15 in WAY too much foundation in the wrong color, wearing cut up hanes undershirts as the white part of my habit because the two-high-school theater program did not have the budget to rent all those costumes in full, and this little smiling old german man going, "oh, they said she was BRUTAL! thank god it wasn't in the script though because I don't think that little girl on stage could have pulled that off, ha ha," while internally I was torn between, "ok damn, noted, fucked up if true," and "lmao don't let the lead actress hear him say that but it's true as well."
#like if you don't know theater i don't think you understand how there is TRULY no effective ''gotcha'' play here to defend hamilton with#i know it seems like that's one of the only actually historical stage shows that may be inoffensive & we all love julie andrews#but maria augusta von trapp was definitely a stone cold bitch and we all just have to accept that#meanwhile re: high school i thought it was super funny bc despite the theater program using students from two whole high schools#the same white kids from the Rich White School got the lead every time largely due to nepotism money or having the right ''look''#even though other kids were more talented... including one girl in the theater kids' clique who i felt bad for#bc she hosted all the cast parties & stuff but it felt like the theater kids were friends w her bc they knew she wasn't a threat to their#status bc she was dark skinned & south asian... so she would never make the short list for maria von trapp.#and i always wondered if she knew she deserved better from the theater director & from the friends she could sing circles around.#all of which is a roundabout way to come back to i applaud hamilton for what it's done in its casting choices & the professional doors it#opens to others but like. GOD at what cost. parv deserved better than ensemble in the sound of music AND deserves better than hamilton#but as long as folks keep acting like the problem isn't BOTH the content of that play AND the nature of theater itself...#and then wanna turn around & act like we're not allowed to critique plays' shortcomings either— artistically AND on the production end—#we will never make progress bc ppl will keep dying on the hill of defending the racist status quo#while telling u to be GRATEFUL for the ''opportunity'' to play in the ensemble again in service of just a different flavor of racism.#:/ issa bummer.
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