Learning to yodel isn’t an easy feat, according to Adrianna LeDonne of La Porte, who is wearing the famed apron of nun-turned-mum Maria in the stage musical “The Sound of Music” now through June 19 at Footlight Players in Michigan City.

“The only thing I’ve found more difficult then yodeling is having to waltz, which I’ve also had to learn to do since I was cast in this role back in April,” LeDonne said.

“Footlight Players has a small stage space, so every step really counts when waltzing. And even in an intimate audience setting, this production still feels like a big stage musical.”

LeDonne leads a cast of 26, which includes Noel Carlson of Michigan City as Captain von Trapp, all directed by Debbie Bartholomew with music direction by Lee Meyer.

Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.

The beloved 1965 feature film starring Julie Andrews opposite Christopher Plummer won five Academy Awards and captured audience hearts. But Bartholomew reminds it was the original Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway run in 1959 starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel which first introduced audiences to the von Trapp Family, based on the true story penned by Maria von Trapp in her 1949 memoir.

War-torn Austria, pending Nazi invasion, and a household of singing children eager to please their widowed father as he tries to find new hope for romance, are some of the treasured tale’s themes

Throughout the decades, Sandy Duncan, Marie Osmond, Petula Clark and Florence Henderson are just a few of the great names to twirl in the stage hills of Austria on stage portraying Maria.

“I was so lucky to find Adrianna to be our Maria for this run,” Bartholomew said.

“This is only her second time performing on our stage. She joined me for our run of ‘Jerry’s Girls’ at the start of the year. Once I gave her the script for ‘Sound of Music,’ she had all of it memorized in just a few weeks.”

Bartholomew said even though “The Sound of Music” had been planned for a stage run with licensing secured prior to the pandemic, the two-year hiatus had the Footlight Players’ programming committee investigating alternatives.

“For a time, I had thought I might be directing a production of ‘Narnia,’ which is the musical adaptation of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,’ and an equally wonderful stage tale,” Bartholomew said.

“But we were able to get our licensing back for ‘Sound of Music’ and that gave us the greenlight to start casting.”

Other key cast members include Candace Archer of Michigan City as the chilly Baroness Elsa Schraeder, Tom LaDonne of La Porte as plotting producer Max Detweiler, and Lori Lubs Zylstra of Michigan City as the Mother Abbess, the lead nun who sings her good-natured lament about “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”

Clocking in at two and half hours with one intermission, audiences rank musical numbers like “My Favorite Things,” “I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen” and “Climb Every Mountain” as some of the all-time most cherished song standards of Rogers and Hammerstein.

Adrianna LeDonne said the film “The Sound of Music” remains one of her top movie picks of her youth and today.

“I remember back in high school when my friend and I would watch Julie Andrews in this movie over and over, which is why it might have been so easy to get this role down so quickly because I love the character of Maria so much,” LeDonne said.

Bartholomew said the costuming for this musical was an intricate and involved process which required “handy and precise needlework.”

“We had the nuns’ habits already stored and ready to go because of having used them in a previous show, but that was about the extent of what we had available to us for costumes, and so the rest had be created,” Bartholomew said.

The costume design for the production is courtesy of Sharon Kienitz, Laura Meyer and Terri Dale.

“What was particularly the most challenging was making sure we auditioned and was able to cast our von Trapp children characters as soon as possible because they need different costume changes for the wedding scene, their at-home school uniforms, the ball scene, and of course the signature playtime clothes,” Bartholomew said.

“We learned very quickly, it’s not easy to make play clothes from window curtains.”

Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.