arts & life

Climb Every

Mountain

PHOTO BY MATTHEW MURPHY

theate r

Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer

Sound of Music

(coming to the

Fisher) actress Kelly

McCormick has made

a point of following

this advice.

Kelly McCormick

details

The Sound of Music runs May 10-22
at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit.
$39-$90. (313) 872-1000;
broadwayindetroit.com.

52 May 5 • 2016

K

elly McCormick has taken
on many roles in the make-
believe world of profession-
al theater, but she always returns to
a continuing role in the real world
of Judaism — rebbetzin.
McCormick, who grew up in
Bloomfield Hills attending the
Protestant Kirk in the Hills, has
converted and is the wife of Rabbi
Jonathan Blake, spiritual leader of
the Westchester Reform Temple in
Scarsdale, N.Y.
Temporarily entering the
sphere of yet another religion,
Catholicism, McCormick portrays
a nun in a touring production of
The Sound of Music, and revisits
the Metro Detroit area May 10-22
to make her first appearance at the
Fisher Theatre.
The Sound of Music, of course, is
a perpetual favorite. But thanks to
recent TV performances by Lady
Gaga and Carrie Underwood, it has
had a burst of cool again. And this
show adds more realistic elements
as directed by Tony Award-winner
Jack O’Brien, McCormick explains.
The characters are fleshed out
more fully, and there is a stronger
sense of Nazi threats looming in
1938 Austria, the setting for the
romance that develops between
Captain George Von Trapp (Ben
Davis) and governess Maria Rainer
(Kerstin Anderson).
“I’m in the women’s ensemble,
playing a nun and a Nazi,”
McCormick says in a recent phone
conversation from her home,
where she was on break from the
tour that began in September.
“One of the most gratifying
parts in being a nun in this musi-
cal has to do with the a cappella
choral singing, [which was] written
in four or six voices and divided
among eight women. The songs are
all in Latin with liturgical music
that happens as part of the daily
prayers in the abbey.
“Occasionally, I take on my
understudy role as Baroness Elsa
Schraeder. People only familiar

with the movie won’t know that
Elsa will have two songs — ‘How
Can Love Survive?’ and ‘No Way to
Stop It.’
“The first is performed when
Elsa and the Captain are beginning
their courtship (before he turns to
Maria), and the second is about the
political climate.”
While McCormick admires all
the songs in the musical — includ-
ing “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-
Mi” and “Edelweiss” — she
especially is drawn to “Climb Ev’ry
Mountain” in the way it encourages
people to follow their hearts. That’s
the message she got from her late
father.
“My dad was an amateur folk
and bluegrass musician, and
there always was music in our
home,” recalls McCormick, who
appeared in another Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma!,
while attending Kingswood. “Rainy
afternoons and weekends were
spent with him trying to teach
me how to harmonize, and it was
always fun.
“My family moved to Okemos
when I was a high-school junior,
and I left school early to attend
Michigan State University. My
dad said to major in something
I loved so I graduated as a voice
major.” She was then accepted to
grad school at the University of
Cincinnati College-Conservatory
of Music and earned dual master’s
degrees, in vocal performance and
dramatic performance.
McCormick, who recalls
attending bar mitzvah parties in
Michigan and had a close friend
who was Orthodox, found connec-
tion with Judaism by working with
religious music.
“Voice majors are hired to sing
in choirs, and I experienced a
wide range of denominations and
beliefs,” she says. “None of the
Christian faiths were speaking to
me.
“A friend recommended that I
apply to Hebrew Union College for

The Von Trapp children sing “Do Re Mi” with Maria.

McCormick, in 8th grade, played Jed in a Kingswood production of
Oklahoma!

the ordination choir. That was my
first exposure to a Jewish service. It
was four hours long, and the music
shook me to the core. I became
part of the Shabbat morning choir,
and I had a community of rabbis
and scholars around me. It’s where
I met my husband, who also sang
in the choir.”
When a neighbor spoke about
her conversion to Judaism and gave
McCormick books about the expe-
rience, the actress-singer made her
decision and worked with a rabbi
at Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati.
At that time, she began dating her
husband of 14 years.
New York was her destination
after graduation.
“I worked at a Wall Street firm
while getting an agent to send me
out on auditions,” she recalls. “I got
my Equity Card doing a production
of Pal Joey in Philadelphia, and my
career took off.
“My biggest break was doing
the national tour of Les Miserables,
one of three tours I’ve joined. The
experience was like a grad school
education. It was the first time I
had understudied and performed
the role of Fantine, and that demys-
tified the process.”

Other credits include the nation-
al tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
and regional productions of Hello!
My Baby, Mary Poppins and Guys
& Dolls.
McCormick hopes that the
realism in this production of The
Sound of Music cautions audiences
against laying low and just trying
to survive in times of oppression.
“Those people bear a lot of
responsibility for being silent part-
ners,” she says.
McCormick, who knew she
would be in the musical as of April
last year, coordinates her time with
the schedule of her husband.
“Jonathan will be spending about
four weeks with me in various cit-
ies on the road,” says McCormick,
who describes her rebbetzin activi-
ties as being musical guest on the
bimah, chief sermon editor, head-
shot photographer for the clergy,
dinner hostess, co-leader of trips to
Israel and therapist.
“I love learning languages, and
we’re going back to Israel this sum-
mer for a month. It will be our
fifth trip, and I’m looking for ulpan
programs because I want to be in
some Hebrew language studies
while I’m there.”

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