Full disclosure: I'm a huge fan of The Sound of Music film, and have probably seen it at least 30 times.
That said, I've always enjoyed the OBC CD of the stage show, and was looking forward to seeing that version last night.
Whatever I might have felt about the acting and directing, which have been discussed here at ATC by smarter people than me, what I missed the most was the screenplay by Ernest Lehman.
To me, here's what Lehman improved upon:
1. Character development: the play had none. The film gave me real, 3D characters in Maria and Georg, not just in the acting but in the writing. They had more time together, they had more interactions (for example the dinner scene, which Georg later states is when he fell in love with Maria).
1.5. Chemistry: Maria and Georg having more interactions gives them time to fall in love. What's with Brigitta telling Maria, "Hey, my dad loves you. Remember that time he couldn't take his eyes off you? The audience didn't get to see it but I'll tell them all about it."
2. Humor! There are light touches throughout the film that I always enjoy, and were missing from the stage show.
3. CONFLICT. In what I saw last night, the kids liked Maria right away, and I'd want Benanti's Baroness to be my mother. In the film, Eleanor Parker's Baroness was certainly not a villain but also not exactly warm and fuzzy mom material. Her "boarding school" line spoke volumes.
Actually, for me, the only improvement in the play is the fact that the Baroness herself realizes she and Georg have such differing views of politics and what's about to happen that she breaks it off. And I do wish the film had kept at least one of Elsa's songs, both of which I love.
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