CMH is honored to present: An Interview with Author Tom Santopietro:

CMH: You’ve spent much of your career managing Broadway shows, and have also authored a number of classic movie related books. Can you tell us what the "The Sound of Music" means to you, and why you felt compelled to write this book?

Tom Santopietro: The Sound of Music was the first Broadway show I ever saw; I was very young and all I remember is thinking that it was pretty great that Rolf got to ride his bike onstage when he was delivering a telegram- very impressive to a five year old boy! When the movie came out I fell for it completely- and fell a little in love with Julie Andrews (as did most of the world). The scenery, the story, especially the music- I fell for it all. Why I felt compelled to write about the film: so much cultural heft has been attached to the film that I wanted to strip that away and look at it from the standpoint of a film historian, hopefully.…    

Read Full Interview Here: "The Sound of Music Story - Exclusive Interview with Author Tom Santopietro

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About the book:

The Sound of Music Story

Tom Santopietro, author of the New York Times Editor's Choice Considering Doris Day, has now written the ultimate "Sound of Music" fan book with The Sound of Music Story.

Filled with all the inside scoop, The Sound of Music Story ranges from behind the scenes stories of the filming in Austria and Hollywood to new interviews with key participants including Dan Truhitte (Rolf), choreographer Dee Dee Wood, Robert Wise's assistant director Georg Stenitz and Johannes von Trapp himself.

Santopietro looks back at the real life story of Maria von Trapp, goes on to chronicle the sensational success of the Broadway musical, and recounts the story of the near cancellation of the film when the "Cleopatra" debacle bankrupted 20th Century Fox.

We all know that Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer played Maria and Captain Von Trapp, but who else had been considered? Tom Santopietro knows and will explain all, while providing a film historian’s critical analysis of the careers of director Robert Wise and screenwriter Ernest Lehman, a look at the critical controversy which greeted the movie, and the film's triumph at the Academy Awards, where it won five Oscars including Best Picture.

Analyzing everything from the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein score, the film’s relationship to the turbulent 1960s, the super stardom which engulfed Julie Andrews upon the film's release, to the reasons for this great film's passionate worldwide following amongst neighborhood movie goers and celebrity fans (Rosie O'Donnell, Gwen Stefani and President Ronald Reagan) alike, Tom Santopietro's The Sound of Music Story is a book for everyone who cherishes this American classic.

About the author:  Tom Santopietro is the author of The Godfather Effect, [ The Importance of Being Barbra, Considering Doris Day (a New York Times Editor's Choice) and Sinatra in Hollywood. He has worked for the past twenty years in New York theater as a manager of more than two dozen Broadway shows.

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