The von Trapps never saw much of the huge profits the Sound of Music made nor had any creative input, because Maria sold the film rights to German producers and inadvertently signed away her rights in the process. The Germans then sold the rights to American Broadway producers Hayward and Halliday, who turned the story into a musical starring Halliday’s broadway actress wife Mary Martin. At first the producers were keen to use the original von Trapp repertoire and combine this with a few new songs by composer and lyricist duo Rodgers and Hammerstein. However, a complete integration of these distinctly different musical styles made Rodgers and Hammerstein uncomfortable, so they decided to write an entirely new score. They established a narrative driven show model where the song and dance numbers became an extension of and complimentary to the main narrative. It is here where the transformation of the von Trapp’s life story into the fictionalised version that is so well-known and loved today
The von Trapps never saw much of the huge profits the Sound of Music made nor had any creative input, because Maria sold the film rights to German producers and inadvertently signed away her rights in the process. The Germans then sold the rights to American Broadway producers Hayward and Halliday, who turned the story into a musical starring Halliday’s broadway actress wife Mary Martin. At first the producers were keen to use the original von Trapp repertoire and combine this with a few new songs by composer and lyricist duo Rodgers and Hammerstein. However, a complete integration of these distinctly different musical styles made Rodgers and Hammerstein uncomfortable, so they decided to write an entirely new score. They established a narrative driven show model where the song and dance numbers became an extension of and complimentary to the main narrative. It is here where the transformation of the von Trapp’s life story into the fictionalised version that is so well-known and loved today