I watched most but not all of The Sound of Music Thursday night; a long day a work and having to get up early for an early AM conference call at work the following morning, I turned in for bed a little after 9:30. I would like to watch the whole thing.
Here is my take from what I saw and from the YouTube videos:
I was pleasantly surprised and with emphasis on surprised, on how well Carrie Underwood handled the singing. There were a few moments when I detected an ever so slight twang slip through, but overall, as far as the singing, I think she did well. Her acting however, the speaking parts, was rather painful to watch. As one reviewer commented, “She delivered her spoken lines with all the inflection and spontaneity of an in-flight safety video”. As some have mentioned however, she did seem to improve as the production went on. I will however say that for someone who has no Broadway stage experience, it must have been daunting to perform a complete musical live. It is a lot different from just singing on stage or doing music videos. I wonder if having a live audience would have helped or hurt her.
Stephen Moyer also disappointed as Georg Von Trapp. I think he’s incredibly handsome and sexy and he’s a good actor and can sing as well, but his acting Thursday night I also found stiff and labored. I found it odd how he constantly had his hand over his stomach as if he was having a gall bladder attack.
The woman who played Elsa, Laura Benanti was excellent. Then again she is an experienced stage actor and FWIW, she played Maria in a Broadway revival of TSOM in 1999. The children were also very good, especially the young woman who played Liesl. Then of course there was Audra McDonald as the Mother Abbess. She was simply outstanding and out shined the rest of the cast IMO.
I understand that many people love the 1965 movie. So do I. My big brother took me to see it at the movie theater when I was 5 years old and he had bought the soundtrack LP too and I wore it out, know every song by heart along with the soundtrack to Mary Poppins. But people need to understand that this was not an attempt to “re-make” the 1965 movie or Underwood attempting to recreate Julie Andrew’s (or Mary Martin’s who originated the role on stage) performance. This was a live performance of the original stage musical and I hope that with the ratings success, that we will see more such similar programs in the future. And FWIW, the 1965 movie made some changes in song order and staging of some of the songs and dropped a couple of songs that had been in the original stage musical and it was nice to see them included in this production.
Next as far as the casting Audra McDonald who is black, while some seem to, I had no problem with it. I would have felt much differently if she had played the part as “black”, “blacked it up”; in other words acted more like Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act or as if she was in some Tyler Perry movie, sung Climb Every Mountain like a “negro spiritual” but she didn’t, she played the role perfectly. While in the first minute of the production, I couldn’t help notice her skin color, it was soon forgotten as it should.
It should be noted that McDonald is a Juliard trained five-time Tony Award winning actor in addition to being an accomplished TV and movie actor and Grammy wining recording artist. She won a Tony for her performance as Carrie Pipperidge in a revival of Carousel and played Lady Percy in Shakespeare’s Henry IV.
Casting for stage productions, especially musicals typically do not follow the same sort of rules or concerns as for TV or movies casting in far as race or age. For instance, Mary Martin who originated the role of Maria in The Sound of Music in 1959 (for which she won a Tony that year) was at the time 46 years old – a wee bit too old to play the young novice Maria doncha think? And she reprised her role as Peter Pan in 1960 for a live TV performance at the age of 47, as a boy no less.
Opera also casts singers in roles based solely on their singing and acting ability alone and never for their physical appearance. Luciano Pavarotti played many romantic leads in operas but no one ever swooned over his good looks; his singing and stage presence, yes. The same can be said for many female opera singers – while not all female opera singers are rotund, there are more than a few that wouldn’t be cast in a movie because of their weight or lack of attractiveness or age – on the operatic stage, these things do not matter. And FWIW, my mother had many years of classical voice training, sang opera locally here in PA and was invited to audition for the Met, and her favorite opera singer was Leontyne Price, my mother thought her voice was near perfection. And Leontyne Price along with many other black opera singers have played roles that are not “black” roles, some even being cast in Wagner operas.
But for those of you who still that think that “historical” accuracy is important in a stage musical and concerned about a black woman cast as a nun in Austria prior to WWII, then you should skip The Sound of Music all together because the musical, both the stage musical and the movie is only bares a passing resemblance, is only rather loosely based on the real Von Trapp family. I would also ask why McDonald’s casting is an issue when American southerner Underwood’s is not. Underwood is from Oklahoma so perhaps one day she will take a stab at that musical in the role of Laurie, I think that would be a good role for her, hopefully after polishing her acting skills.
Underwood does not have the sweet voice required for Maria and similar roles. Underwood’s voice leans more to the brassy side — which would indicate other roles.
Also, in the clips I’ve seen, it sounds like she is singing in a slightly different key than the kids — almost like a guitar tuned to drop d.
Not hugely off, but just enough to be noticeable. I suspect that she (and many C&W aficionados) think it sounded okay.
I collect cartes de visites & cabinet cards from the 1800s and have a significant collection of black women who are nuns. I suspect, however, that they were not common but they did enter convents and thrived.
So Mrs. Scoutmaster and I weren't the only two who noticed the constant gall bladder attacks? Anytime he was compelled to speak, von Trapp strode forward, his back to all of the actors, struck his gall bladder pose, and then acted at a stiff bad junior college level.
The acting, singing, and blocking certainly weren't up to Broadway standards for a similar performance.
I give it a four out of ten, and one of those points is simply because Carrie Underwood was in it.
Your mileage may vary.