If "you are 60, going on 70," The Sound of Music was one of the biggest pop culture events of your youth. It's a holiday standby on stage and TV, and I imagine it reminds you of happier, more innocent times. That's probably why the matinée lobby at Tacoma Musical Playhouse was a traffic jam of walkers, wheelchairs and portable oxygen tanks. Me, I'd never actually seen the thing; but thanks to the ubiquity of its Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, I felt like I already had. Nothing in the show comes as a surprise. It's rather like watching Psycho (also from 1960) for the first time: you already know Janet Leigh isn't long for this earth, so the suspense level's basically nil.

That's no knock on TMP's production. It's been crafted with obvious care. Marissa Ryder, a TMP regular, makes and sings a lovely Maria. Karen Early Evans provides operatic chops in the role of Mother Abbess. Jonathan Bill's an imposing Captain Georg and has a resonant baritone. Director Jon Douglas Rake's choreography is often straight from the movie, which is fine in this context. Will Abrahamse and John Chenault offer yeoman work on the set and lights, respectively. If I felt like nitpicking, I could say the von Trapp family lacked energy, or that acoustics were occasionally muddled and Sophia Lewis too quiet as Liesl. For the most part, though, an audience awash with gray hair got exactly what it wanted: a loving reproduction of a childhood favorite. Cue the cash registers!

Read Christian Carvajal's full review of The Sound of Music in the Weekly Volcano's Arts section.

TACOMA PLAYHOUSE, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THROUGH DEC. 16, 8 P.M. FRIDAY-SATURDAY, 2 P.M. SATURDAY-SUNDAY, $20-$29, 7116 SIXTH AVE., TACOMA, 253.565.6867

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