Carrie Underwood to Star in NBC's Live Broadcast of THE SOUND OF MUSIC — Page 3

The way this country's going, set The sound of Music in 2012 in the rural south- instead of the anschluss, Kentucky secedes from the union while the Captain and Maria are on their honeymoon and the captain refuses to serve in the new racist government's Navy, partly because he finds their politics abhorrent and partly because Kentucky is land-locked.

And I only got through Liz & Dick because I just had some good Not Liz minutes before we watched it!

I heard that was only way you could get through Liz & Dick: Sex or Alcohol...or a combo of both. I wonder if it will work for this particular broadcast?

Will it be broadcast live on a sound stage or live on a theater stage?

What will the show curtain look like?

Whatever happens, I hope the last minutes are bum rushed by Bill Murray and Alfre Woodard sings 'Put a Little Love in Your Heart'.

I find her painful to watch because her face is so expressionless when she sings. Yes, this is television, where facial expressions should be subtler than live theater, but even for television her face is rather blank-looking.

Isn't she on an NBC show? How dumb is she to go against her parent company.

Who knows? She could be good. Petula Clark played Maria in the 1981 London revival, and the real Maria von Trapp said Petula was the best Maria she had ever seen. Listening to cast recording of the Petula Clark version, I can tell you she played Maria with a pop sensibility and I quite liked it. Therefore, Carrie Underwood could be quite good!

I imagine this is how people would have reacted if the Internet was prevalent in 1997 when it was announced that Brandy would play Cinderella in a television remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. And now, the Brandy version is considered a "classic" for my generation.

Petula Clark is an actress.

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Updated On: 11/15/13 at 01:32 PM

Yeah- I think she can handle the singing but Maria has so many dimensions and I don't believe Carrie can handle the acting. Hopefully, she will get a great director (like Jennifer Hudson did for Dream Girls) and maybe she will surprise everyone- at least that's what I'm hoping. I can't tell you how many local shows I have seen where the lead could sing but not act- it's painful! Part of me also believes Carrie is just too commercially pretty for the part- that's just my opinion. I'm looking forward to seeing who the rest of the cast will be.

What a terrible idea. Are they seriously saying that of all the women who could have possibly been brilliant in this, Carrie Underwood was their top choice? That's ridiculous, what a missed opportunity. I have zero desire to see her take on this role, what a joke.

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I worry she won't be able to handle three hours of memorized dialogue

It is a good question why we accept a "standard" Brit or American accent in Sound of Music but would not accept a regional one. It's a convention we've grown accustomed to, and regional accents distract us and carry stereotypical baggage.

In any event, I seriously doubt Underwood will do this with a regional dialect.

Twang is not irrepressible. Just as Australians can sound generically American so can women from Oklahoma (hell, Chenoweth and O'Hara are from Oklahoma and Mary Martin was from Texas). She might be great.

And country singers don't have to sound country just as non-country singers can sometimes sing country.

No one objected to Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong (at least on those grounds, some people would object to Gwyneth in anything).

No one objected to Karen Black and Barbara Harris in Nashville.

I wonder how much NBC synergy we'll be seeing. Featuring Alec Baldwin as Captain Von Trapp? With Smash's Megan Hilty and Christian Borle as Elsa and Maxie Dettweiler?

I'd be okay with Baldwin.