Photo Flash: THE SOUND OF MUSIC Opening Night at Drury Lane!

Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, have extended THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the Tony Award and Academy Award-winning musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, through January 8, 2012 due to popular demand. The production opened October 27. A captivating love story featuring some of Broadway's most popular music, THE SOUND OF MUSIC is directed and choreographed by multi-Jeff Award winner Rachel Rockwell (Sweeney Todd, Ragtime and Miss Saigon at Drury Lane Theatre), who was named "Best Director" by Chicago Magazine in 2010. THE SOUND OF MUSIC features an all-star cast led by five-time Jeff Award nominee Larry Adams as "Captain von Trapp" (the Broadway production and National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, Drury Lane Theatre's Ragtime and The Music Man, and The Merry Widow at The Lyric Opera of Chicago), Tony Award-nominee Patti Cohenour as "Mother Abbess" ("Mother Abbess" in the 1997 Broadway revival of The Sound of Music, "Christine" in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, and The Light in the Piazza at the Lincoln Center) and introducing Jennifer Blood as "Maria" (Falling for Eve Off-Broadway).

Set in Austria in the late 1930s, THE SOUND OF MUSIC is the enchanting story of Maria, a spirited young nun who leaves the convent to become a governess for the seven children of the widowed Captain von Trapp. Maria endears herself to the mischievous children by teaching them to sing and leading them on adventures through the Austrian countryside, eventually capturing the stern Captain's heart. After Maria and Captain von Trapp marry, the Nazi Party orders him to join a naval unit, forcing the family to flee the Nazi regime by escaping across the Alps on foot. Based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers," THE SOUND OF MUSIC features classic songs including My Favorite Things, Climb Every Mountain, Sixteen Going on Seventeen, Edelweiss, and The Sound of Music.

The original 1959 Broadway production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Book, and Score, and ran for 1,223 performances. The production was the final collaboration between the legendary team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Since its original Broadway premiere in 1959, the musical has been nominated for a multitude of awards and has been presented on stages around the world including hit London and Broadway productions. The acclaimed 1965 film version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, won five Academy Awards including Best Picture.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC also stars Jeff Award-nominee McKinley Carter as "Elsa"; Jeff Award-winner David Girolmo as "Herr Zeller" (Drury Lane Theatre's Sweeney Todd, Candide on Broadway, Passion at Ravinia); Jeff Award-nominee Peter Kevoian as "Max" (The Screwtape Letters at The Mercury Theater); Jeff Award-winner John Reeger as "Franz" ("Scrooge" in A Christmas Carol at Drury Lane Theatre, Sunset Boulevard at Marriott Theatre, Amadeus at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Jeff Award-winner Paula Scrofano as "Frau Schmidt" (Broadway Bound at Drury Lane Theatre, The Most Happy Fella at Ravinia Festival, The Wizard of Oz at Chicago Shakespeare, and Sunday in the Park with George at Goodman Theatre); Jeff Award-nominee Craig Spidle as "Admiral von Schrieber" (Over the Tavern at The Mercury Theater) and Brandon Springman as "Rolf" (Drury Lane Theatre's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).