The year is 1938. Eastern Europe is falling under the reign of Nazi Germany. Yet, despite the tumultuous times, love blooms.

Such is the story everyone has come to know as “The Sound of Music.” The classic musical comes to Stephens Auditorium tomorrow for one special performance.

The tale follows the real-life story of the Trapp Family Singers, who delighted concert hall audiences in America and Europe in the late 1930s and ’40s. But not all characters are based on real people.

Max Detweiler, played by Gordon Gray, adds a touch of comic relief to the story. Gray said the schoomzing tag-along is based on a composite of friends of the von Trapp family, particularly a priest whom Gray described as “funny and cynical.”

Max is friend to Captain von Trapp. The Captain is still grieving his dead wife when Maria Rainer is sent to be a temporary governess to the widower’s seven children. Loathing music because it reminds him of his dead wife, the Captain treats the children like soldiers, not allowing song or dance.

But soon, Maria teaches the children to sing and the Captain, in spite of himself, becomes caught up in the beauty of their music and surprisingly joins in.

Max, the cultural minister of Austria, hears the children and wants them to perform at one of his shows.

“He organizes a concert and he’s looking for a singing act,” Gray said. “He’s wants to get the von Trapp children.”

But the character of Max is not all fun and laughs.

“He’s a Nazi collaborator,” Gray said. “Max takes the position most people would in politics. He doesn’t take the Nazis serious. He plays both sides of the fence.”

It his Max’s two-faced qualities that eventually save the Captain, his new bride Maria, and the children from the Nazis. He stalls the soldiers who have come for the family and, in doing so, puts himself in danger.

“Max does not escape,” Gray said. “His choice is always look out for number one, yet he risks his own life to help his friends.”

And the von Trapps did escape.

In the 1950s, well-known Broadway director Vincent Donehue was approached with the idea of directing the American version of a German film about the the von Trapp family, based on Baroness von Trapp’s book of reminiscences,”The Trapp Family Singers.”

The “Singers” were a pair of adults and seven children who from 1938 to 1945 were one of the most popular concert attractions in America. The truth that they were penniless exiles driven from their Austrian home by the Nazis and forced to turn what had been a hobby into a professional skill was unknown at that time.

Donehue enlisted the masters of musical scores, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to write the songs that are now are part of American culture like “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do Re Mi,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

Maria von Trapp died in 1987 at the age of 82 and was survived by three children, five stepchildren and 29 grandchildren. Baron von Trapp died in 1947 at the age of 57, but Maria and her family continued giving concerts until 1955.

The Austrian government awarded Maria von Trapp the Honorary First Class for improving cultural ties between Austria and the United States.

Tickets for Saturday’s show are $10, $13 and $16 for Iowa State students. They are available at the Iowa State Center Ticket Office.