The Sound of Music: stage vs screen

Robert Wise's 1965 film, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, is so well known that many people are surprised by how different the 1959 Broadway show is. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman rearranged the songs, cut three numbers, and Richard Rodgers wrote two new ones. Here is how the stage and screen versions compare.

Stage

Broadway musical (1959)

Screen

The Sound of Music (1965), directed by Robert Wise

1. Two new songs by Rodgers alone

Oscar Hammerstein II died in 1960, so Richard Rodgers wrote both words and music for the film's two new songs. "I Have Confidence" follows Maria on her journey from the abbey to the von Trapp villa, and "Something Good" is the love duet Maria and the Captain sing in the gazebo. Many later stage revivals have borrowed both songs.

2. Three stage songs are cut

"How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It," both sung by Elsa and Max, are gone from the film, along with "An Ordinary Couple," Maria and the Captain's original love song. "Something Good" takes the place of "An Ordinary Couple."

3. "My Favorite Things" and "The Lonely Goatherd" trade places

On stage, Maria sings "My Favorite Things" with the Mother Abbess at the abbey, and "The Lonely Goatherd" is the song that calms the children during the thunderstorm. The film gives the thunderstorm to "My Favorite Things" and turns "The Lonely Goatherd" into a marionette show the children put on for their father, with puppets by Bil and Cora Baird.

4. Elsa leaves for a different reason

In the musical, Elsa and Max argue that the Captain should go along with the coming Anschluss, and Elsa breaks off the engagement when he refuses to compromise with the Nazis. In the film, the politics are softened: Elsa sees that the Captain loves Maria and steps aside gracefully.

5. "Edelweiss" is sung twice

On stage, the Captain sings "Edelweiss" only at the festival concert, as a farewell to Austria. The film adds a new scene in which he sings it to his children at home, with Liesl joining in, and then expands the concert version so the whole audience sings along.

6. "Do-Re-Mi" becomes a tour of Salzburg

On stage, "Do-Re-Mi" is a single scene at the villa. Lehman turned it into a montage that moves through Salzburg and the mountains, showing Maria and the children growing closer over time.

7. A tenser escape

In the musical, Rolf finds the family hiding at the abbey, sees Liesl, and lets them go. In the film he raises the alarm instead, and the family gets away only because two nuns have sabotaged the Nazis' cars. The film also sets the concert at the real Salzburg Festival, where the stage script calls it the Kaltzburg Festival.

The Sound of Music movie vs musical: FAQs