Markki Stroem and Karylle Tatlonghari join The Sound of Music cast

KARYLLE TATLONGHARI and Markki Stroem join the international touring cast of The Sound of Music for its Manila season.

Actress, singer, and host Karylle Tatlonghari takes on the role of Baroness Elsa von Schraeder; the woman who has her eyes set firmly on the Captain. Radio host, model, and actor Markki Stroem will be playing Rolf, the delivery boy in love with the eldest von Trapp child, Liesl.

The two actors waited to be confirmed for their roles for about a month, after sending an audition video and reel, and then having one meeting with the creative team.

“I have sent a few auditions already to a lot of other international projects. And sometimes you feel [that] they’ll get someone from [another] country,” Mr. Stroem said in a press conference on Feb. 17 at The Gallery at Greenbelt 5 in Makati City.

“There’s a part of you that feels like it’s not going to happen. But you just have to keep becoming a better performer than you were before,” he added.

Mr. Stroem got the call from the production while he was doing a radio program. His reaction was secretly filmed by his colleagues upon receiving confirmation.

Meanwhile, Ms. Tatlonghari noted that she auditioned fairly for the role, debunking the notion that roles in the theater scene are offered more easily to children of celebrities or artists. Ms. Tatlonghari is the daughter of singer and actress Zsazsa Padilla. This comes after several discussions about “nepo-babies”: children of celebrities who were alleged to have had their last names play a role in getting plum parts.

“It doesn’t come easy. You might think that they were just probably cast,” Ms. Tatlonghari said, referring to actors already with a degree of fame, whether by themselves or through their families. “It’s nice to have a support group,” she said about the time she was waiting for the announcement.

SOUND OF MUSIC MEMORIES
Both actors have vivid memories of enjoying the musical in their childhood. For Ms. Tatlonghari, watching the musical was a bonding activity with the family. “My dad and I would rent laser discs every Friday,” she recalled. “The Sound of Music is one of the top rented musicals in our home.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Stroem first saw the musical in German on VHS tape.

“I lived in Germany from when I was nine to 12 [years old]. Essentially having studied over there, it’s a whole different process. I don’t think they’re even allowed to show the Nazi flags — that is the conflict of the story. And that is where my character usually takes a lot of it from,” he said.

“[Rolf] is a soldier. Having watched it in Germany, I got to understand how much were so against this regime. And having seen that, I was able to understand it in a different way from people who were part of the opposition,” he added.

Both actors have begun rehearsals in Manila and will be joined by the rest of the touring company at the end of the month. Ms. Tatlonghari and Mr. Stroem will be joining touring company members Jill-Christine Wiley as Maria Rainer, Trevor Martin as Captain von Trapp, and Lauren Kidwell as Mother Abbess, and Lauren O’Brien as Liesl. The von Trapp children starring in the musical will join the company for the first time during the Manila production.

“I think there’s something about the classics and the things that we grew up with that speaks to the hearts of people,” Ms. Tatlonghari said of the musical’s timelessness. “When a lot of people are excited about The Sound of Music, it’s because it brings them back to a simpler time — to their inner child — that it just goes around and sings and twirls and enjoys life,” she said.

The Sound of Music runs in Manila from March 7 to 26 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati. The international tour of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical is presented by Broadway International Group, Broadway Asia, AMA Group of Companies, in association with GMG Productions.

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