My 2 cents... on The Sound of Music

             

    NBC’s live broadcast of the Sound of Music was a special one night only event, and I could not be more grateful.  It’s as if your local high school production got caught on film, for all of America to see. What could and should have made the world excited about and fall in love again with this classic musical just reminded us of a fact we already knew: 

Only actors are good actors.  

But before I tear it apart, there needs to be some credit given, where credit is due.

            
 I predicted correctly that the main reason to watch would be to see Audra McDonald’s performance as Mother Abbess.  The Mother Abbess in the film is extremely stoic and melancholy, and Ms. McDonald brought a humanity and warmness that allowed the audience to understand the special connection she had with Maria.  Her performance of ‘Climb Every Mountain’ will probably earn her an Emmy Award )
this next year, and will be one you want to watch a few times.  Audra and Carrie were not the only ones in tears when that song was over. It makes sense why that was considered the standout song when the play premiered.  (WATCH HERE)

                Ms. Benanti’s performance of the Baroness also was extremely satisfying, as she took a usually two dimensional character and gave her a third.  Showing the more political and likeable colors of her character helped humanize her, as opposed to the child-hating villian we are so familiar with.  It helps that she has a Tony-winning voice to boot as well.

                I was surprised to realize just how different the movie and the play were.  The play being much more political, so much so that it seems politics may have been the major reason for the Captain’s broken engagement.  That added dimension though only makes the Maria-Captain love only less believable.  The re-included songs that the Baroness sing are recognizably Roger and Hammerstein’s and are quite enjoyable thanks to Ms. Benanti and Mr. Boyle.  The production otherwise had smart and beautiful sets, a nice pace and tempo, and made me want to see more productions done live on TV.  I would advise, in the future, that they might do pieces without iconic films attached.  Because the film is so cherished, and more importantly, ingrained in the public’s mind, this production had a heavy load to bear.  And nobody felt it more than Ms. Underwood.

                It perhaps is a piece of show business cruelty to stand a singer with no acting experience, next to Oscar winner Julie Andrews, especially when it is in a career-defining role, like Maria.  Going into the production, we knew that Carrie would have a difficult time winning over fans, as anyone in the role would.  That being said, I understand why they chose her on a promotional level, but on a talent level, I am baffled.  Now Ms. Underwood actually sang much better than I expected, but her acting was exactly what I expected. 

I doubt you would be able to find an artist on the radio today who could have sung this score better than Carrie did.  I was impressed that she was able to drop the country-style embellishments that have made her a millionaire, and that she included some Julie Andrews inspired vocals at the end of Do-Re-Mi.  It’s obvious that Carrie is a very gifted vocalist, even if her musical theater singing comes off as stiff.  Although the gravity in her voice was usually too heavy and focused, she did soar in ‘The Lonely Goatherd’… that was until she was flat on the very last notes of the song.  Whoops.  It goes to show that a standard singer has a difficult time pulling off musical theater. 

Her acting was painfully robotic, and amateurishly unnatural.  It was as if she was the musical guest on SNL and got thrown, the last minute, into a skit.  And really, in a way, that’s what this production was.  With such an acting failure as this, it’s impossible to save a show who so heavily relies on it’s main character.  This would also lead to give Ms. Andrews even more credit as to why the film is so good.  And to think she didn’t win the Oscar that year… now THAT is a true piece of Hollywood horror.

In my previous post I suggested that Sierra Boggess should have played Maria.  Most of you probably had no clue who she was… let me show you one reason WHY I think she would have been PERFECT!

See?  Yup. You need a Maria who can carry the tune and stand toe to toe vocally with Julie Andrews.  You need someone who sings so powerfully that you think, ‘I actually liked her version of that song’.  I guess this post could really serve as my audition to be NBC’s casting director for future musicals.  Haha... but seriously.

In the end, I was extremely disappointed, but not one bit surprised.  I knew Carrie’s acting would be a huge liability, and I knew Audra would be the reason you at least watched the first 90 minutes.  For my love of Broadway and the sake of musical theater, I sure do hope more studios produce events like this.  I hope that if they do, they try to find good actors and vocalist to fill the roles.  Unfortunately this production probably has made the prospect of future ones, even less likely. Now, I think it’s all time we throw in our DVD’s and watch the original movie, especially the scene after the boating accident, tif only to remember these three important things.

1.       Acting matters.

2.       Julie Andrews is a stunning performer.

3.       The movie is perfect.