Carrie Underwood to Star in NBC's Live Broadcast of THE SOUND OF MUSIC- Page 23

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 12:55am

NBC is makin it rain with those Twitter trend tags! Cold hard greenback dollahs!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 2:58am

Laura Benanti needed to take over and start doing the role. Underwood didn't even know where to start with the acting. And I'm sorry, just because it's a live musical doesn't mean we should just be happy and love it; Carrie Underwood simply made for a not so great experience, to say her acting was wooden is an understatement. I will say Audra and Laura were glorious and the music is great.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 7:02am

First Review I've seen.


"Because while Underwood can deliver the songs — I’m sure that anyone with the desire to plunge themselves into the American Idol ringer has been singing those songs for most of her life — she doesn’t acquit herself so well when it comes to the carrying the emotional weight of the production. And perhaps it was unfair to ask so much of Underwood, to have to make Maria’s journey in three scant hours — where Andrews had weeks of production — while enduring costume changes and remembering choreography and trying not to look at the prompter and not step on anyone’s lines or feet. Underwood nails the look of a virginal almost-nun, but goes no deeper than that. Blank stares and placid smiles."
Hollywood Reporter

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 7:03am

The role of the Baroness was vastly improved for the film by Ernest Lehman's screenplay. They took away her songs, but gave her Brigitta's scene were she confirms that the Captain is in love with Maria. It made more sense coming from the Baroness. And Eleanor Parker's Baroness was a stronger, more defined character with less to do than her stage counterpart. I thought Laura was terrific, but I just don't think the role is that solid as written in the play.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 7:19am

Oops - Variety has spoken. Everyone seems to say the same thing - Carrie Underwood can't act.
But my favorite lines are "Still, the Maria-Von Trapp relationship has its problematic aspects under the best of circumstances, and Underwood and Moyer didn’t come close to threading that needle. Given the absence of chemistry, one could be forgiven for hoping he’d lapse into “True Blood” mode and simply bite her neck.



Variety Updated On: 12/6/13 at 07:19 AM

[suestorm]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 7:56am

I loved Lauras tweet about how she and everyone in the company absolutely adore and love Carrie, and to "suck it haters!"

Updated On: 12/6/13 at 07:56 AM

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:09am

imo, SOM is a second-tier show, way below the best of R&H, and not worth bothering with at all (the fact that it won the Tony over GYPSY is inexplicable). Still, it is a very popular piece, and the theatre pros (Audra, Laura and Christian) were terrific. Carrie's singing was surprising; as mentioned earlier, she brings real conviction when she sings, but little or none in her dialogue. And Stephen was fine when he sang quietly (and has anyone ever really watched Plummer's wooden acting in the movie? The role is a stick, and "there's no way to stop it.") If the ratings were good, and this leads to more musical theatre on TV (the "live" part seems unnecessary to its success, frankly), great. But producers Zadan and Meron have brought us many shows on TV, some good (I like Midler's GYPSY), some nsg (MUSIC MAN, BYE BYE BIRDIE), but all on video, not live. And please, stop hiring Rob Ashford, who had already killed two of the best 1960s shows in revival (HOW TO SUCCEED and PROMISES, PROMISES), and kept this SOM very slowly paced.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:26am

I haven't seen it mentioned here, but I've seen it a lot of other places ... did anybody else think the prerecorded orchestrations were too loud? There were a couple of times when they drowned out the singers, even Audra in her final reprise at the end. I thought it was my sound system kicking in, and I figured maybe people who didn't have surround speakers wouldn't notice it.

But apparently others did. And a few times (for me), it was really off-balance.

I would love to see them try another live musical next December. I was definitely entertained by this one, warts and all.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:31am

I know it's important to keep whatever musical choices they make "family friendly," which translates into "ratings friendly," so I wondered if Disney and ABC might throw the stage version of Beauty & the Beast into the mix. Or Mary Poppins "live" to celebrate the 50th anniversary next year. It's probably too late for that, even if it's a year away. The planning and scheduling on something like this must take a LONG time.

[fbueller]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:35am

"Given the absence of chemistry, one could be forgiven for hoping he’d lapse into 'True Blood' mode and simply bite her neck."

"And the children are like the kids with Barney the dinosaur."

So funny!

[JMPlayer6]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:48am

First of all, I applaud NBC for doing this. As a general comment, the production was quite good. I am not going to nit-pick it. But Carrie Underwood: when she opened her mouth to sing, she was very good. Otherwise, she couldn't act worth beans. What a shame with that.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:50am

I've never been a big Sound of Music fan. I enjoyed this production. Agree that Carrie can sing but cannot act. I was trying to believe her but it was obvious when Maria fled to the Abbey and had the scene with Audra. I am also not an Audra junkie but kudos to Audra for a knockout performance. I did not have a problem with Audra's age as Mother Superior. I enjoyed most of the other choices for who played the roles with exception of Christian Borle. I personally did not like him as Max. I liked the sets and how they even had a "breeze" blowing the foliage in the background. Really liked the transitions from Mansion/Abbey, Mansion/Theater...although I did laugh when I read how someone called the Mansion/Abbey scene the "batcave" HA! I'd actually watch this version again and hope that more live musicals are in our future. The LIVE factor certain had a bit of allure for me. Yes, I did hear the hiss in the background and the somewhat "echo" quality of the non-scrubbed non-perfected production but that is what I liked about it. To think that somewhere this was actually taking place while I was home watching! Thanks NBC.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 8:53am

There's no denying that poor old Carrie was just plain in over her head. She seemed to give up by evening's end, she barely registered at all after the wedding scene, but that's always been a big complaint I've had with the movie -- after she marries Von Trapp, Maria has NOTHING TO DO.

They just never found a way to bring this warhorse of show, with its well-documented excesses of saccharine glop, to meaningful unsaccharine life for very long. The movie comes off like Dostoyevskian Shakespearian High Bloody Tragedy in comparison with what went down last night.

What can I say -- I got verklempt when Audra McDonald sang Climb Every Mountain. She was genuinely thrilling, genuinely inspiring, everything you could want. It was like hearing the song for the first time for me. I can only imagine that this is what it would be like to hear someone sing "Ah, Sweet Mystery Of Life" in all honesty and sincerity, without winking at the audience in any way, and turning what has become a justly famous punchline into something true and beautiful and moving.

Audra managed it. Laura Benanti managed it. Otherwise, well...

[Tom1071]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 10:24am

I think this could have been better in the hands of a different director and I also felt it suffered from not having a live audience. It lacked energy and pacing. Even Christian Borle paused after a funny line as though he was pausing for laughter and nothing came. It would have been much better if there was that give and take from a live audience.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 10:25am

This one pretty much sums up what I thought:
"The only real problem was the real reason most people tuned in: Carrie Underwood, an ‘‘American Idol’’ winner and country music star, sang well as Maria but her acting inexperience was laid bare. She had zero chemistry with her love interest and lacked any intensity or shading. Deer in headlights have emoted more. How do you solve a problem like Maria, indeed."

and

"Borle was arch and wonderfully slimy as Max, Benanti was glamorously witty as Elsa, and McDonald was a majestic Mother Abbess. Michael Campayno as Rolf was a natural though he’s still in drama school and Ariane Rinehart was a winning Liesl. Stephen Moyer, who is primarily known for his work on HBO’s ‘‘True Blood,’’ was a particularly stern Captain and more than a few people watching would probably have liked him to ditch the nun drop-out and stay with Benanti.

But Carrie Underwood was the star and she gets her man in the end. Underwood also got us to watch yet it was Borle, Benanti and McDonald who showed the world how to hold a moonbeam in your hand."
Yet another review

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 11:59am

Underwood was solid on the material and dedicated to the work. She, no pun intended, was and is a novice and I am absolutely, positively certain that she has the chops to do this again and be better. Unfortunately, Underwood had a very distinct disadvantage - her director is Rob Ashford. he can NOT do scene work. The seasoned pros were at an advantage to fill in the voids themselves, but someone in Underwood's position is relying on the assistance and guidance of a solid director to mold her and she was not given that.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 12:20pm

So, as it turns out, 18.5 million people tuned in last night.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: 'Sound of Music' ratings soar: NBC's biggest Thursday in 4 years

[newintown]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 12:25pm

Wait... what? Did someone do The Sound of Music last night? Why wasn't I told?

[suestorm]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 1:53pm

My favorite scene

Updated On: 12/6/13 at 01:53 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 2:08pm

Did something completely mess up the margins and layout of this thread?

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 2:10pm

I'm thrilled that the ratings were so solid. Yay!

I also have to say that it's generally put me in a "glowy" mood today, thinking about it. It was not a perfect Sound of Music, but there was so much to enjoy and appreciate.

Bravo to NBC and all concerned! And I look forward to next December (hopefully) with another live musical event.

It also makes me happy to think that 18.5 million watched Laura Benanti, Christian Borle, and Audra McDonald last night, perhaps for the first time, and saw them give terrific performances. And probably half of those people asked, "who's that?" and maybe today, they know their names, and they know how good they are.

And 18.5 million people now have seen the (slightly revised) stage version of that movie they grew up with. I'm sure some never knew it was a stage musical first. Maybe it will get them to go see a stage show, or watch another televised musical with a little less resistance.

That makes me very, very happy.

[bubba7753]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 2:53pm

does anyone know how much carrie made for doing this?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 2:55pm

I'm surprised that a country singer is getting so much flack for her acting, when an actor playing the Captain was the worst thing in it, and he's NOT a country singer! The production is (was) completely forgettable. Hope there are more live-event musicals, though. One's that don't already have a definitive version would be nice.

[suestorm]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 3:01pm

HOLY MOLY!!!! Im in a car with my guyfriend, he turns the radio to the Sports Station because there was some big baseball trade or something and THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT CARRIE AND SOM!!!!!!!!! ON THE SPORTS STATION!!!! instead of Yankee Trade. He was sooooo pissed LOL

i guess thats one reason other than her voice and goodness why Carrie was cast.

That says it all

Updated On: 12/6/13 at 03:01 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/6/13 at 3:03pm

Please, Carrie was the worst thing in it.

Underwood was solid on the material and dedicated to the work. She, no pun intended, was and is a novice and I am absolutely, positively certain that she has the chops to do this again and be better.

Based on what? Like Roscoe and others have said, there was no indication of anything other than that the score was beyond her capacities as a singer and the acting was beyond her capacities, period.