amysutton's review against another edition
5.0
The pictures and source materials in this book were awesome. Getting to see studio photos, handwritten lyric drafts, and other pictures of the musical throughout its history was great.
My only critique is that the history at times was organized thematically instead of chronologically. So, there were times when the writers broke off into paragraphs of rambling and connections - most notably the two paragraph discussion of Gwen Stefani in the final chapter, and skipping from discussions of the stage play to Broadway play to the movie within the same paragraph. This is incredibly picky, of course, but it was notable and something that could have used slightly tighter editing.
Overall, this was a really interesting read.
My only critique is that the history at times was organized thematically instead of chronologically. So, there were times when the writers broke off into paragraphs of rambling and connections - most notably the two paragraph discussion of Gwen Stefani in the final chapter, and skipping from discussions of the stage play to Broadway play to the movie within the same paragraph. This is incredibly picky, of course, but it was notable and something that could have used slightly tighter editing.
Overall, this was a really interesting read.
petrajaga's review
2.0
You'd think I'd be the prime target audience for this book. A fan of musicals, The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews, Chris Plummer, Salzburg, behind-the-scenes reports, brown paper packages tied up with strings and everything else, there was no way a book like this would not go down well with me, right?
Wrong.
The Sound of Music Companion is (surprise! surprise!) a companion book to the 2006 London revival of the show, meant to provide an overview of how the show came to be, from Maria Kutschera's childhood to the London production it's meant to accompany. It's a good enough idea - if not exactly novel - and the book does a decent job in providing all the necessary facts.
It's how the facts are provided that was my issue with the book - the main narrative reads as if written by one of the people who thinks The Sound of Music is, at best, a treacly guilty-pleasure movie and only just manages not to snark about it every step of the way. And while, sure, The Sound of Music is a fluffy piece of fluff, it's fluff that means a lot to people (myself included), so just... rethink the bad puns next time, eh?
Also annoying: shoddy fact-checking/editing in some places, blurry movie photos, naming (or not naming) actors in photo captions at will ('cause we need to know who the third US tour replacement was, but the Japanese Maria's name is irrelevant, sure).
Slightly redeeming: Julie Andrews. Photos of Chris Plummer being hot. <3
To recap: read Charmian Carr's book(s) instead and/or find posts about the movie on Tumblr. Better trivia, better photos.
Wrong.
The Sound of Music Companion is (surprise! surprise!) a companion book to the 2006 London revival of the show, meant to provide an overview of how the show came to be, from Maria Kutschera's childhood to the London production it's meant to accompany. It's a good enough idea - if not exactly novel - and the book does a decent job in providing all the necessary facts.
It's how the facts are provided that was my issue with the book - the main narrative reads as if written by one of the people who thinks The Sound of Music is, at best, a treacly guilty-pleasure movie and only just manages not to snark about it every step of the way. And while, sure, The Sound of Music is a fluffy piece of fluff, it's fluff that means a lot to people (myself included), so just... rethink the bad puns next time, eh?
Also annoying: shoddy fact-checking/editing in some places, blurry movie photos, naming (or not naming) actors in photo captions at will ('cause we need to know who the third US tour replacement was, but the Japanese Maria's name is irrelevant, sure).
Slightly redeeming: Julie Andrews. Photos of Chris Plummer being hot. <3
To recap: read Charmian Carr's book(s) instead and/or find posts about the movie on Tumblr. Better trivia, better photos.
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