<Li> 2015--16 UK Tour </Li> <P> The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse . It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers . Set in Austria on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938, the musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large family while she decides whether to become a nun . She falls in love with the children, and eventually their widowed father, Captain von Trapp . He is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy, but he opposes the Nazis . He and Maria decide on a plan to flee Austria with the children . Many songs from the musical have become standards, such as "Edelweiss", "My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Do - Re-Mi", and the title song "The Sound of Music". </P> <P> The original Broadway production, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, opened in 1959 and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, out of nine nominations . The first London production opened at the Palace Theatre in 1961 . The show has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals since then . It was adapted as a 1965 film musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, which won five Academy Awards . The Sound of Music was the last musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein; Oscar Hammerstein died of cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere . </P> <P> After viewing The Trapp Family, a 1956 West German film about the von Trapp family, and its 1958 sequel (Die Trapp - Familie in Amerika), stage director Vincent J. Donehue thought that the project would be perfect for his friend Mary Martin; Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (Martin's husband) agreed . The producers originally envisioned a non-musical play that would be written by Lindsay and Crouse and that would feature songs from the repertoire of the Trapp Family Singers . Then they decided to add an original song or two, perhaps by Rodgers and Hammerstein . But it was soon agreed that the project should feature all new songs and be a musical rather than a play . </P>

When was the sound of music first performed on stage