The cast of the Sing Hosanna! production of “The Sound of Music” rehearses. Submitted Photo

Decades ago, a young Ralph Christy Jr. saw the film “The Sound of Music” on a screen “two stories high.” The experience, he said, made him fall in love with the story of Maria, a novitiate turned governess and then mother to the von Trapp family, and their subsequent flight across the Alps, away from the Nazi conflagration.

This weekend, more than three dozen cast members of Sing Hosanna! under Christy’s direction bring that much-loved tale to Butler County Community College’s Succop Theater stage.

Audiences will be hard-pressed to find a song in the show, from “Edelweiss” to “Do-Re-Mi,” to which they don’t know the words. The musical opens with one of those classic numbers as Maria (Mia McGrady), alone in the mountains, sings the classic “The Hills Are Alive.” McGrady has a strong voice, especially in the higher, more demanding registers, and she skillfully depicts Maria as a woman who is tender with the children, stern with the captain and often conflicted with the Mother Abbess.

Mother Abbess (Heather Check) is an even and steady hand who, with wise words and a beautiful singing voice, works to help Maria find her true vocation. The senior nuns, the ornery Sister Berthe (Megan Rockcastle), Sister Margaretta (Miranda Vrabely) and the agreeable Sister Sophia (Maranda Horstman) are well-cast. They, along with Mother Abbess, make “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” a delightful early highlight.

Matt Nocera as Captain von Trapp is a dashing but stern Navy veteran whose children jump to the call of his bosun’s whistle, but also a man who slowly softens and grows to be able to express his love for his children under Maria’s influence.

Hannah Callender plays Baroness Elberfeld, the captain’s early love interest, with an icy Aryan precision and a pretty singing voice in “No Way to Stop It,” while Dhinesh Samuel brings a touch of broad comedy to the opportunistic impresario Max Detweiler.

The show's von Trapp children, David Tomko as 14-year-old Friedrich; Ella Sutara as 13-year-old perpetual troublemaker Louisa; Caleb Doverspike as the adorably pint-sized 11-year-old Kurt, Kimberlee Hogan as 10-year-old truth-teller Brigitta, Emma LeClaire as 7-year-old Marta, and, finally, Elowyn Flores as 5-year-old Gretl, are scene-stealers in the best possible way as they sing and dance their way into the hearts of the audience. Sixteen-year-old Liesl (Haylee Hogan) is a charmer. The petite performer precisely captures the spirit of a girl on the verge of womanhood and in love for the first time. In “16 Going on 17,” she and Rolf (Jacob Scanlon) flirt and dance, moving from a waltz to a Charleston with impressive dexterity and chemistry.

In a cast this large, it’s impossible to point out every player, but their talent as a group enables the show to soar through the musical numbers and intricate choreography. Special praise has to be made for the charming costumes and hilarious capering of those ensemble members who play the goats in the “The Lonely Goatherd” scene. Never work with children or animals, the old show business saying goes, but these goats (along with the goatherd and the townspeople in the same scene) are the exception to the rule.

The set switches, primarily, between the old European grandeur of Captain von Trapp’s palatial estate and the austere Abbey of the sisters. The stage crew moves quickly and efficiently and creates these impressions with just a few simple props and a backdrop of the sweeping Alps through which the family eventually escapes to safety. That escape reminds the audience that refugees fleeing war and political persecution are issues not just of our time. Even with all this joy happening on stage, “The Sound of Music” fearlessly posits that the only solution to the real evil that exists is standing our ground while being caring toward others.

This Sing Hosanna! production of “The Sound of Music” is a charming crowd-pleaser filled with 32 beautiful songs and reprises, a skillful orchestra and talented actors. The audience will be hard-pressed not to sing along with the von Trapps during their climactic concert. After all, as Maria tells the children, “Of course you sing. Everybody sings.”