It has been four days since NBC presented a live performance
of The Sound of Music, time enough
for all the critics to lambast Carrie Underwood because she isn’t Julie
Andrews and to lament the play’s cloying sentimentality. Enough, already. Someone should speak up for the production,
which, despite a few shortcomings, was a high-quality rendition of a
high-quality musical. And Carrie
Underwood should hold her head high; she was an excellent Maria. As a matter of fact, hearing that the network
was planning to air a live performance,
I sensed a disaster in the wings, but I needn’t have worried. NBC pulled it off
with flying colors.
First, the material:
This Sound of Music was not
based on the movie, which everybody has seen, but on the Broadway musical,
which relatively few people now alive have seen. That play opened on November
16, 1959, ran for 1433 performances, and won mostly rave reviews, especially
for Mary Martin, its star. (Theodore Bikel was the baron.) At least two of the
songs were not used in the 1965 blockbuster movie: but were fortunately
resurrected for the NBC production: “No Way to Stop It” and “How Can Love
Survive?” For the broadcast, the
producers also decided to use one song written specially for the movie: the lovely “Something Good.”
As I said, most critics loved the play. Frank Aston of the
World-Telegram called it “The loveliest musical imaginable,” and Richard Watts
of the Post wrote that the “show has a warm-hearted, unashamedly sentimental,
and strangely gentle charm that is wonderfully endearing.” The raves are worth
noting, because the movie, so beloved by the public, has become a favorite piñata
of the critics, who routinely savage its sentimentality (The Sound of Mucus).
The cast: It was up
to Carrie Underwood to carry the production, just as it was up to Mary Martin
and Julie Andrews, and Ms Underwood did far better than one could reasonably
expect, given her limited dramatic experience. She looked right, and that alone put her on second base. Add a fine
voice, and that put her on third. There
was not a flat note (none that I could detect, anyway) and not a jarring line or reaction. No, she’s not Julie Andrews
(who is?), but remember that if Julie flubbed a line or didn’t hit a note
right, why, they simply shot it over, as many times as necessary, until it was
perfect. As for Mary Martin, she was 46
(!) when she played Maria, and she had decades
of stage experience behind her.
The supporting cast was excellent, notably including Laura
Benanti as Elsa Schrader. Laura is a
real singer and played the role with warmth and wit. (Eleanor Parker, the
movie’s Frau Schrader, was edgier and did no singing.) Christian Borle was a fine Max Detweiler (the impresario),
particularly when singing with Laura Benanti, and the children were adorable – and good singers, to boot. If there was a weak
link it was the baron. Stephen Moyer was stiff and sang poorly. He looked the
part, and that must have landed him the job.
But that only got him to second base, where, alas, he died. Audra McDonald, as the Mother Superior, was
formidable, as she always is.
The interior sets were well executed. As for the exteriors (the Austrian Alps), they
were embarrassingly bad, although I don’t know how they could have finessed
that except by bringing in video of the real Alps or resorting to computer
graphics – both of which would have brought howls from viewers who were
promised a live production. In 1959, faux mountains probably didn’t
matter, but expectations have been inflated since then.
Carrie Underwood is 30 now – the same age Julie Andrews was
when she made The Movie. Let’s hope Carrie’s career has the same kind of arc
that Julie’s had. And let’s hope that NBC doesn’t let the naysayers keep it
from televising more live musicals.
