Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music,” now being staged at Dexter’s Encore Theatre, is one of those shows that instantly garners a passionate response from people — usually either gushing adoration or profound revulsion.

But director Barbara Cullen counts herself as a member of the former camp, having first experienced a live production of “Sound” at age 5 in Cincinnati’s Taft Theatre.

“It was the first theater production I ever saw,” Cullen said. “My mom tells me that I sat on the edge of my seat the entire time. It changed my life, in that it led me to train and work in theater. It made that much of an impact on me, as a kid, seeing other kids actually perform, as well as the fact they were all different ages, from 5 to 16. From that moment on, I just fell in love with the show.”

So why, in Cullen’s opinion, do others despise the show — loosely based on a true story — about a high-spirited Austrian postulant who, in the 1930s, arrives in the house of a widowed military captain to play governess to seven children?

“When you think about the show, … you sometimes look past, and forget about, what’s happening during that time period,” said Cullen.

Specifically, the Nazis’ growing power and influence in Europe, and Austria particularly.

“It was a pretty scary time,” said Cullen. “I can’t imagine thinking that any minute you could be put in jail, your family could be taken away, your fortunes could be absconded with — even lives. People were murdered. But when the Nazis took over Austria, Georg (the Captain) stuck by his principles. He wouldn’t raise the Nazi flag, he wouldn’t join the forces, and he ended up leaving Austria.”

Of course, both the stage musical and the ubiquitous, Oscar-winning, 1965 film adaptation, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, take liberties with the real-life version of the story. Maria actually came to the Von Trapp house to work as a tutor for one of the children; she and Georg had been married for 10 years, and had children of their own together, before they had to flee the country; and in the end, the Von Trapps didn’t cross the mountains on foot, but rather left Austria by train.

But nearly all based-on-a-true-story adaptations trade in embellishments, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration — Hammerstein died of cancer 9 months after the stage musical’s Broadway premiere — resulted in a string of musical-theater standards, including the title song, “Edelweiss,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

“The writing is truly brilliant, if you really listen to the lyrics and the dialogue,” Cullen said. “There are these little surprises written into the script.”

Patrons who have only seen the film version, though, will also experience some surprises regarding the show’s music. Two songs added for the film — “I Have Confidence” and “Something Good” — will be absent; and three less familiar songs that were cut from the film adaptation — “No Way to Stop It,” “An Ordinary Couple” and “How Can Love Survive” — will be part of Encore’s show.

Cast members include Leslie Henstock (whose credits include the national Broadway tour of “Les Miserables”) as Maria and Paul Kerr (previously seen in Encore’s “Club Morocco”) as the Captain. Plus, lots of young local talent will be featured in the roles of the VonTrapp children, particularly since Cullen double-cast them.

“It’s always challenging to double-cast, but we got such talented kids at auditions — I’m so glad we did it,” Cullen said. “So far, it’s working out great.”

There’s likely to be lots of young people in the audience, too — some of whom just might have the same response Cullen herself had as a girl.

“When I first saw it on stage, I’d seen film version, too, but I was struck by fact that (the performers) were right in front of me, right there,” said Cullen. “To hear them and see them made the story even more real for me.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.