One of the most-requested classic musicals every year at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is The Sound of Music. (Another is Frozen: The Musical, a show which doesn’t technically exist, yet, but that’s another story.) To the great delight of subscribers, last spring’s 2015-2016 season announcement included the news that the hills of St. Paul are alive with music. But whose voices would they be?

Complete casting information isn’t yet available, but the Ordway announced yesterday the actresses and actors who will be playing the Von Trapps and their governess:

• The scandalous Billie Wildrick will play the singing nun Maria. Wildrick previously played Mother in the Ordway’s A Christmas Story, the Musical and Adelaide in its 2011 Guys and Dolls; she also appeared as Eve in the Broadway production of Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson.
• The beer brewer Dieter Bierbrauer will play the stern Captain Von Trapp. Bierbrauer, a prominent name in local theater, has performed at major theaters around the United States and more recently appeared as the Old Man in the Ordway’s A Christmas Story, the Musical.
• Reformed mermaid Caroline Innerbichler will play Liesl Von Trapp. Innerbichler played Ariel in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ celebrated production of The Little Mermaid and was most recently seen being fetchingly abducted by pirates and stealing scenes as Rose in the Ordway’s The Pirates of Penzance.

Other Von Trapp castmates include the Harvey Milkish Quinn Morrissey as Friedrich, Putnam County Spelling Bee-escapee Bella Blackshaw as Louisa, reformed orphan pickpocketer Nate Turcotte as Kurt, Grinch survivor Natalie Tran as Brigitta, Josephine Elizabeth Turk as Marta, and Chloe Lou Erickson and Mabel Tryphine Weismann as Gretl.

• About
• Latest Posts

Basil Considine

Basil Considine was the Editor of the Twin Cities Arts Reader from 2018-2022. He served as Performing Arts Editor and Senior Classical Music and Drama Critic for the Arts Reader's first five years, before succeeding Hanne Appelbaum. He was previously the Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and remains an occasional contributing writer for The Boston Musical Intelligencer and The Chattanoogan. He holds a PhD in Music and Drama from Boston University, an MTS in Sacred Music from the BU School of Theology, and a BA in Music and Theatre from the University of San Diego.

Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017. He was previously the Regional Governor for the National Opera Association's North Central Region and the 2021-2022 U.S. Fulbright Faculty Scholar to Madagascar.

Latest posts by Basil Considine (see all)

• DC REVIEW: Anything but Business as Normal in the American Opera Initiative (Washington National Opera) - January 22, 2024
• NYC REVIEW: Spectacular Fulfillment in The Promise (PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL) - January 14, 2024
• NYC REVIEW: Adoration, Myths, and Reality (PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL) - January 13, 2024