The Bookstore's Alive...with a Pop-Up Version of The Sound of Music

There’s a brand new treat for the littlest musical fans (and the adults who sing show tunes with them): a pop-up book version of Rodgers & Harmmerstein’s The Sound of Music. Adapted from Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s libretto and incorporating Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyrics, this Simon & Schuster hardcover children’s book, released October 27, brings all the famous scenes from the 1959 Broadway musical to 3-D life.

Longtime R&H staffer Bert Fink was entrusted with the task of fitting a lot of plot into six pop-up spreads, with extra “mini” pop-ups blended into his text. “Because of my theatrical background, I found it easier to think of six stage settings and work from there,” Fink tells Broadway.com. “I felt at times like a director, while [illustrator] Dan Andreasen and [paper engineer] Bruce Foster were like my production designer and technical director.” The large pop-ups depict the musical’s most-loved scenes, including the von Trapp kids singing on the staircase, sitting on Maria’s bed during the storm and, of course, climbing that famous mountain.

“My source was the stage musical, not the film,” Fink explains, “so no ‘My Favorite Things’ during the rainstorm, only ‘The Lonely Goatherd.’ Anytime I had a character speaking a line of dialogue, it was lifted from the stage script. The challenge was how to tell this rather complicated—and in some ways, adult—story in a narrative to and for children.” In other words, bye-bye Baroness Schraeder!

The Sound of Music joins a series of S&S pop-up adaptations that include The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and The Jungle Book. “We loved the idea of introducing a Broadway musical into that collection,” says Fink, who jokingly (we think) suggests Me and Juliet as the next R&H show to jump off the page.