Me - The Sound of Music Live, wow! Carrie Underwood is a terrible actress. She sings good though, and she is pretty. The captain was really good. I liked all of the children except Brigitta. Gretyl was adorable. She was not as cute as Gretyl in the movie, however. The rest of the people in the cast were fine. Audra McDonald was really good. Compared to Audra McDonald, Carrie Underwood is like a little squeaky mouse to Audra's lion. All of the acting in the show was good except for Carrie. Liesel reminded me of the daughter in the TV show, Mom. I missed Charmian Carr's bright blue eyes from the movie. For me that is a big part of Liesel. The singing was all good. Mostly, I didn't like the set. I didn't like the hill they climbed up at the end. It didn't look enough like a really hill. It wasn't high enough, and it didn't look enough like the one in the movie. I didn't like the house because it wasn't spacy enough. Also, there were too many staircases and too many doors. Also, I didn't like that the party scene took place outside. I didn't like that they hid in the garden of the abbey near the end of the show and you could see the inside of the abbey from where they were hiding. I liked the lines and the placement of the songs better in the movie too. I also like the kids and Maria better in the movie. The costumes overall were okay. I did like that the drapes that the childen's outfits were made out of were much prettier in this version than in the movie. The whole thing wasn't bad, and I enjoyed it, but overall, I liked the movie much better.
Mom - I have always loved The Sound of Music. It was the first movie I saw and my favorite ever since. I couldn't wait to see the new TV version. Over all, it mostly lived up to my expectations. The acting was good. The singing was wonderful. I was very disappointed in Carrie Underwood though. She is beautiful and so is her singing, but she is no actress. I am not one of those hate tweeters. I reserved judgment until I actually saw the show, but have to say that that I agree with the real Von Trapp family in their feeling that the part certainly could have been cast better. I mean Carrie Underwood is not the worst actress in the world. I have seen many that are worse. However, she does not have much range. Her emotions go from A to B instead of from A to Z. In a cast of mostly Broadway veterans, Carrie's lack of acting talent really stood out even more. Other than that I enjoyed this version of the The Sound of Music. Stephen Moyer as the Captain may not have been as formidable as Christopher Plummer in the movie, but he was very good in the part. He made the character a bit more likeable right from the start than I ever remember him being before. From my understanding from having read the autobiography of the Von Trapp family's real oldest daughter, I think they would have liked that better than the way their father was portrayed in the movie. The children were cute and sang well and for the most part acted well. I kind of liked Angela Cartwright in the movie a little better as Brigitta though. She seemed a little more knowing and a little less bratty than the young actress who played the part here. The other main actors were good. Christian Borle seemed a little more aloof and less of a comic relief character than Max in the movie. Laura Benanti seemed a less evil slightly more likeable countess. Although, she had and Max had two songs here unlike in the movie overall, I did not think her character was developed as well. She didn't leave because the Captain was in love with Maria. She left more of because of a political disagreement. Dramatically, it works better the other way as in the movie. Audra McDonald as the countess was wonderful as always. There is a reason she has won 5 Tony Awards. She made me really care about a song (Climb Every Mountain) and character that I had never really thought about much before. Everything that comes out of her mouth sounds beautiful whether she is singing or just talking. Her scenes with Carrie Underwood made Carrie's lack of talent stand out even more.The sets were well done. The costumes were good. I did not like that for the most part they stuck to the original version of the show because I feel like the placement of the songs and certain things was better in the movie then in that version. A revivial of the show that I saw on Broadway about 15 years ago or so stuck to the revised version of the movie, and I enjoyed that. Ironically, Laura Benanti who played the Baroness here played Maria in that version when I saw it. However, when I have seen the show in community theater once or twice they always stuck to the original stage version as well. Anyway, over all I enjoyed this verison, but it could never even come close to replacing my love for the movie. For me, if they now start to have more live theater on television as a result of this venture having been a success that will be the best thing to come out of this experience, and I will be happy and grateful for it.
And that's our view. Would you like to more televised theater? Why or why not?
