A whimsical tribute to ‘The Sound of Music’

August 29, 2009|Janine Parker, Globe Correspondent

BECKET - In “Fräulein Maria,’’ David Parker lets out a giddy “wheee!’’ at the end of his duet with Scott Lowe, and it pretty much sums up the audience’s feeling. Parker’s unabashedly girlish exclamation suits his portrayal of Liesl, the eldest Von Trapp daughter - just one reinvention of many in Doug Elkins’s hilarious and loving tribute to the iconic movie “The Sound of Music.’’

The hour-plus work has developed a loyal following over the past few years in the cabaret atmosphere of Joe’s Pub in Manhattan, but at Jacob’s Pillow it proves irresistible even in the more traditional theater setting. The lovable, tuxedoed Michael Preston, as emcee, gets things rolling with an audience singalong. Within moments, without cues or a cheat sheet, we were all singing “Do-Re-Mi’’ as if we’d been rehearsing our whole lives.

“Fräulein Maria’’ is purposefully, charmingly low-tech, like an elementary school play: Austrian hills are conjured by dancers stretching bolts of fabric across the stage, then positioning themselves underneath to form various heights. Preston scampers about adding finishing touches - a few miniature Christmas trees here represent mature evergreens seen from afar, a white scarf draped on a hill there becomes a snowcap, a yellow plastic plate is the (shakily) rising dawn. Even the dancing has an unpolished feel to it - Elkins calls himself a “style thief’’ because his choreography borrows from many genres - but this, too, is by design. The dancers’ prowess is amply demonstrated in sequences such as the brilliant romp set to “The Lonely Goatherd.’’

Elkins never descends into cynicism; “Fräulein Maria’’ isn’t parodic. Though often ridiculous and occasionally raunchy, it bursts at the seams with Elkins’s affectionate invention. The nuns, for example, are street-savvy rather than seraphic, in their hip-hop “wimples’’ - black hoodies hemmed in white - and cropped jazz pants. Led by the terrific Deborah Lohse, they groove and strut, sometimes framing their crotches with cupped hands, sometimes pausing in purposely affected ballet poses. The be-wimpled and -sneakered Elkins takes one major turn in the spotlight, his strange, giddy solo one of many moments that bring the house down.