R.I.P Christopher Plummer

 Christopher Plummer passed away last week at the age of 91. He will probably always be remembered as the actor who played Captain Georg van Trapp in The Sound of Music where her starred with Julie Andrews.

A clip from the movie....

In 1974 he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Cyrano. Christopher won another Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Barrymore. In all the actor was nominated for seven Tony Awards.

Mr. Plummer won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role on Beginners. 

Greatness might have been achieved by having an iconic role, winning two Tony Awards and an Academy Award. However, with Christopher Plummer there is still more!

He also won two Daytime Emmy Awards! The first Outstanding Actor - Limited Series or Movie Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers in 1977. 17 years later he won his second for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role in Madeline.

He was even nominated for a Grammy and he has been honored by his native Canada.

He will be missed by his family, friends and fans but leaves behind an incredible legacy! 

Music Has Left The Hills: Maria von Trapp has passed away

Certainly those famous lines of "the hills are alive with the sound of music"from The Sound of Music will echo off the walls of a theater somewhere. However, the hills of Stowe, Vermont were silent on Saturday. It was a silence echoed in the famed hills of Austria where the original story found meaning. Maria von Trapp passed away on Saturday at the age of 99.

She was the last singing member from the famous Trapp family who The Sound of Music is based on. The story was originally found in the book "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" which was written by Maria's mother, Maria Kutschera von Trapp. The family gave the world another example of how sometimes the best stories come from real life.

The original movie version is a staple for the girls in my household. The last time I watched the musical was when I reviewed a wonderful performance of the show at The Olney Theatre Center in Maryland. You can read my review for The Maryland Theatre Guide here.

The trailer to the 1965 movie here:

That famous song..

Thanks for the story, the musical, and the memories!

More Theatre...

Last weekend I watched two plays as I tried to balance my folks being in town and my wife's mom being in town. Yes it was a crazy weekend.

The first play I saw was The Greenbelt Arts Center production of "Alice and Wonderland." It was a solid production but it put art ahead of the story which was daring and creative. You can read my full review here. I really enjoyed Liz Cassedy as Alice, Ronda Anstead as the Cheshire Cat and others, and of course the Mad Hatter Ryan Willis.

Then on Saturday I watched the Olney Theatre's production of "The Sound of Music." I thought after watching this production it could hang with any Broadway version or National Touring production. They really do incredible work there. You can read my review here. It was neat to see Maggie Donovan shine playing a teenage child in the production. I raved about her performance in a completely different role. She was wonderful in "The Last Five Years." You can read that review here. It is neat to run into these talented actors and actresses in different productions.

I had nothing scheduled at the beginning of November and ended up covering three plays and I have one more to go on Sunday to bring up the total to four. So stay tuned there will be more...