Carrie Underwood to Star in NBC's Live Broadcast of THE SOUND OF MUSIC — Page 14

What Liza says is true and it goes double for the "desired demographic" of 18 to 49-year-olds. The young 'uns tend to be out on dates on Friday and Saturday and catching up on homework on Sundays. Or watching football.

Here's Edelweiss

http://www.elle.com/news/culture/carrie-underwood-sound-of-music?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1448_32169330&6788497=1

No, the newer versions on ABC and Lifetime (for Steel Magnolias).

Nah, I wrote Sunday all along, I promise! Haha. :)

Yes, besides Sunday night, Thursday works best. If it was on another network, like ABC or CBS, I'm sure the production would have occurred on Sunday night, but since NBC airs Sunday Night Football, then they have no choice but to air it on Thursday nights. I'm just worried from Thursday night competition like Grey's Glee, and Scandal, especially Scandal since the midseason finale will air on the exact same night as TSOM (or maybe part 1 of 2. The promo wasn't really clear).

Updated On: 11/21/13 at 11:10 PM

Check out Carrie Underwood singing the title song!

The Sound of Music

Underwood sounds better than Mary Martin though one must keep in mind that Martin was older when she originated Maria.

I forgot that Stephen Moyer sang in an episode or two of TRUE BLOOD. I like his recording of EDELWEISS. I still want to hear him sing it live but based on that recording, I prefer his singing to Michael Siberry's.

Laura Benanti will be a great Baroness, I liked Jan Maxwell but her register breaks were too obvious for my taste. Benanti is better at negotiating those shifts and transitions.

I think everything so far has looked and sounded fine, though NBC seems to be throwing everything at the wall on their PR for this, which indicates to me that the Execs may have a slight lack of faith that viewers are actually going to tune in and watch it. And I think that's probably warranted. While I love the concept of doing a musical live on TV -- the truth is, that original script of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is creaky at best - I think they will get really nice numbers for the first hour of the broadcast, but that after checking out the novelty, a lot of viewers will lose interest.

Okay, that is just being nit-picicky and could read as borderline spiteful. If we are honest, NBC and Underwood are correct in that this broadcast IS pretty unprecedented.

R&H's Cinderella with Julie Andrews was a major achievement and a television milestone, to be sure, but it was also a vastly different world. It was a world where live broadcast of dramatic performance was standard. This was just a new scale, with a specially written show. The technique though, was the norm - sitcoms were live broadcast, weekly hour long dramas (broadcast plays, really) were standard fare. Broadway shows were sometimes broadcast - Peter Pan in 1954, for example, would be a far greater comparison in that they lugged the Broadway set to a TV studio in Brooklyn and broadcast the actual stage production in a studio setting. Nevertheless, it was standard fare and America thrived on it. Broadway / musical theatre was as American as Apple Pie and Broadway standards littered the radio and stars like Ethel Merman were known to the greater masses. This was a well regarded formula and a safe bet (there were also only a handful of channels, so the audience didn't have too many options) used in a new way.

This broadcast IS unprecedented. The scale and push are big, the financial cost to NBC is high and they are trying to revive a type of entertainment not seen in around 50 years. We are living in a time where reality tv shows are the standard, where Broadway fare is not *quite* the golden ticket that it once seemed to be, where live broadcasting things in this way is not done.. heck, you see A list divas sing one song on live tv and they are lip-syncing their way through it so as to not risk being less than spot-on. Here you have one of the most well loved young stars in the country taking on a beloved Broadway lead and doing so in a TRULY live performance, not for an audience of 1,500, but for the full nation. That doesn't readily happen. There is a *lot* about this production that can be compartmentalized and said to be of note. Toss them together and yes, in many ways, this broadcast is an unprecedented event.

What's kind of intriguing to me in the way NBC is marketing this, is that they are clearly banking on the 'live' aspect to be a major selling point, and yet, are releasing so much footage including advance recordings of the songs, etc as to take away from the excitement (and danger) of seeing or hearing something for the first time in a 'live' performance.

It all is coming across as so meticulously studied and rehearsed - it feels like they've been at this for months (which they have) -- I can't imagine the 'live' aspect is going to translate into much thrill for an audience. Now if they were trying to rehearse and build this show under a two week ticking clock or something really insane - I think the 'live' aspect would be a lot more enticing for an audience to tune in.

I posted one of the clips on my Facebook page, and I got comments from others who love Carrie Underwood, but say, "Well, she's just not Julie Andrews. Julie IS Maria. I don't think I can watch this!"

Poor Mary Martin.

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The idea that anyone, no matter how great, "owns" a role so that nobody else can ever perform it is strange to me. There are some performers who I think have done the best interpretation of a role,but others have been able to be excellent as well, if not quite as "iconic" (for lack of a better term). It remains to be seen how well Carrie Underwood will play the role, but as great as Andrews was, there have been several excellent stage Marias (Mary Martin, Rebecca Luker, Laura Benanti, Connie Fisher, etc.)and it doesn't "belong" to Andrews even though her Maria is what most people remember.

As for Underwood, I'm looking forward to seeing her in the role. I never really doubted that she would be able to sing the songs. She's a country singer, but she always seemed to have the kind of voice that, with the right type of coaching, would be able to adapt to singing musical theatre. It's her acting that I'm more concerned about, but I hope she does well. Also, even if she's not wonderful, the supporting cast looks to be so outstanding that I think I would be able to enjoy the show anyway.

Updated On: 11/22/13 at 03:29 PM

Beagle, I've never doubted Underwood can hit the notes, but when she sang (i.e., was forced to sing) "Hello, Young Lovers" on AMERICAN IDOL, it was a debacle. There was something about singing straight tones that really threw her. Of course, that was years ago and she's been working on SOM for 6 months, so we'll see.

I certainly have no reason to root for Underwood to fail. And countless women have played Maria by now; so I'm sure Julie Andrews had gotten used to it.

Updated On: 11/22/13 at 07:07 PM