Despite low expectations, Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata delivers impressive show

Before:

When writing questions for my preview for the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata's performance at the Lied Center tonight, part of my preparation was listening to some of the music they have produced. For those of you who didn't read the article, the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata, also known as BRO (which was a bit of a red flag in my mind), is a group currently on a national tour promoting their album of, for a lack of a better term, a revamped "Sound of Music" score.

Picture this: Mother Superior's solo, "Climb Every Mountain," is no longer the classical, life-changing piece that encouraged Maria to marry Captain Von Trapp. Instead, writer Peter Kiesewalter has changed it into a piece he likens to tracks off a Mary J. Blige album and complete with a music video predominately filmed in a subway car and in front of graffiti-ridden walls, I might believe he's achieved his goal. I mean, we're talking a mash up of "Do Re Mi" and the Jackson 5's "ABC."

As a girl who was never allowed to listen to Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys or N*Sync as a child (something for which I've actually been grateful to my mother), I instead grew up listening to Julie Andrews' resilient voice breach levels of the treble clef no voice should breach. I grew up watching the classic love story between a nun and an ex-naval captain. You better believe I knew each and every one of those songs; I knew who sang them and in turn, how they were supposed to sing them.

I know "The Sound of Music."

So when I find myself listening to a cover of "The Lonely Goatherd" that sounds strangely similar to Led Zeppelin's work, I'm not thrilled. I'm about as thrilled about this as John Boehner is about the mandate that contraceptives should be included in the health care initiative. I mean, I grew up listening to this music and, in my opinion, Kiesewalter hasn't even put a new spin on it. Instead, he's created a collection of mash-ups.

So I've decided to take a different approach to this column. I just booked my tickets to BRO's performance tonight at the Lied Center, which I will attend this evening and tell you all about.

Sometimes perceptions can be skewed on YouTube and with that in mind, I hope that I will be proven wrong tonight. However, as I stand right now, I do not think musical music ever sounds good when covered, remixed or mashed. I am not saying that people shouldn't try to reimagine the old, but from what I have heard so far, this is not something that I want to listen to, nor do I think it will draw in other fans of musicals. However, the argument has been made that these new arrangements will draw in those who were not banned from mainstream pop during their developmental years. I suppose that's why I'm about to put myself through this. I'll see you on the other side.

After:

I walk into the Lied Center and immediately notice that one of my favorite venues in the city of Lincoln is looking rather abandoned this evening, and I am instantaneously worried. Bill Stephan, the executive director of the Lied warns me that I "might want to dance during the show," and I brace myself. The Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata walks onto the stage, taking their respective places behind a drum set, microphones, guitars and synthesizers, and the show begins. Flat. The vocals are not blending together and the sound system is quiet. The performers are jumping or dancing around the stage, which is bad, because they dance like me (I was once asked not to return to dance lessons). The lead male vocalist sounds and is acting like a long-lost member of one of the various 90s pop boy bands, and when he throws his Oakleys on, he looks like Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch."

But something good finally does happen: The song ended.

Unfortunately, the next selection doesn't seem to be too promising.

I'm not sure what I expected, but I can safely say I set my expectations far too high. Kiesewalter mentioned to the audience that the group was not trying to parody the score from "The Sound of Music," but I'm only able to sit, fuming in my corner of the theater. For the next hour, I find myself listening to "reimagined" selection after selection and to my horror and absolute dismay, I begin to find myself laughing with them. And tapping my toe. And enjoying the show. By the time they played the opening chords to their mashup of "Do Re Mi" and the Jackson 5's "ABC, I was on board.

Please don't mistake that comment for, "I was sold."

However, I have to give BRO credit. They were entertaining — plain and simple. They are not the next Mozart or Beethoven or Rodgers and Hammerstien, for that matter, but they weren't bad. Everyone on stage was dancing and laughing and, although the audience wasn't also dancing in the aisles, they were clearly enjoying themselves — a standing ovation at the end of the show proved that). At one point, the performers even looked a little silly, which is something that is refreshing to see in professional artists.