MAGGIE GILROY
Reverb Editor
The hills are alive with … a former American Idol?
As soon as the casting was announced for NBC’s live telecast of “The Sound of Music,” with former American Idol winner and country superstar Carrie Underwood in the leading role of Maria, fans of the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical were very vocal in their reactions to the casting of Underwood.
Posts on the web bordered between the fine line of criticism and cyber-bullying, with articles such as “A Guide to Hate Watching NBC’s ‘Sound of Music,’ Live!” from Hollywood.com and hate-tweets flooding the web prior to the telecast.
As Julie Andrews made the role of Maria in the classic 1965 film iconic, both fans and haters of Underwood agreed that she had some large shoes to fill.
“I think so many people out there still don’t understand what we’re doing and, therefore, they do have this incredible ownership over the movie, like ‘You can’t remake that movie!’” Underwood told Entertainment Weekly in response to the negative reactions toward the telecast. “I get hate tweets and stuff like that and like, ‘You’re not Julie Andrews!’ I know I’m not — nobody is, and I would never pretend that I was. I know my place, you know?”
The Department of Theatre and Dance produced a sold-out run of “The Sound of Music” in 2011; it is a musical that is very close to the hearts of many Fredonia students as well.
“No matter how much people want to argue that Maria von Trapp can only justly be played by Julie Andrews, and I agree because she is phenomenal, their argument is mute because ‘The Sound of Music’ was originally a stage production,” Liz Voss, 2013 graduate of the Department of Theatre and Dance and former assistant props master of the show, said. “Theater is meant to be seen and the story of ‘The Sound of Music’ was meant to be told. It is not one person’s right to play those parts when it wasn’t written for a specific actress or actor.”
“I love Carrie Underwood, but I’m a bit apprehensive about how she is going to do as Maria von Trapp since Julie Andrews is the one who made the role famous,” Gabby Carr, senior theatre arts major, said. “Also, Stephen Moyer being cast as Captain also surprised me just because I had no clue he had any musical talent.”
As a result of this controversy, many people watched the telecast air on Thursday with bated breath.
When the performance began, an announcer informed viewers, “What you’re about to see hasn’t happened in over 40 years … the live presentation of a musical.” The telecast was filmed in a Long Island warehouse, which contained the production’s seven working sets.
Tony winning actress Audra MacDonald, as the Mother Abbess, began the night on a high note, singing beautifully with the chorus of religious sisters. However, Underwood was clearly nervous in the following scene as she made her first appearance as Maria singing the title song.
While untraditional and much unlike her predecessors, Underwood’s voice was pleasant. As she was making a clear attempt to mask her country twang, it may not have been a typical Broadway voice. However, it was pleasant nonetheless. Despite this, it was her poor acting skills that distracted viewers from her voice.
Underwood did not appear to commit to the role. She delivered her lines at face value, causing an innocent character to appear somewhat juvenile. Her nerves became apparent as she often made anxious side-glances to the camera.
It appeared that Underwood had to settle into the role, as she appeared more comfortable as the telecast continued. However, she never met the level of the many seasoned actors she stood alongside.
Although Moyer, of the hit series “True Blood,” gave a decent performance as Captain von Trapp, it was the Broadway veterans that stole the show.
The strongest scene in the production was MacDonald’s rendition of the show stopper “Climb Every Mountain,” in which she demonstrated the acting and vocal talent that only a five-time Tony Award winner would possesses. Although she did not have any lines during the song, Underwood’s strongest performance was in her tearful reaction to the song. However, MacDonald made this very easy for her, as her voice would reduce even the coldest heart to tears.
Laura Benanti, Tony Award Winning Actress who has more recently focused on breaking into television, gave a stunning performance as Elsa Schrader. While the role did not allow her to properly display her vocal talent, her skills at creating a character with an arc were portrayed in a subtle way that worked perfectly for the camera. She also brought humility to a role that is not always easily likable. Broadway veteran Christian Borle, who has also been forging a career in television, was very likable in the role of Max Detweiler.
As is expected with any production of “The Sound of Music,” the von Trapp children were adorably likable; they also demonstrated sufficient acting skills for children of their age.
Since the performance was a live telecast, and therefore lacking any computer generated special effects, the scenery had a theatrical quality. While the trees in the forest were visibly fake and could not stand against the famous breathtaking wide-shot of the Swiss mountains in the movie, the von Trapp household was stunning and the swastika-clad Festival concert scenery was both gorgeous and haunting.
While Benanti’s costumes, supervised by Gail A. Fitzgibbons, fit her beautifully (causing her to often steal the scene from an also beautiful Underwood), Underwood’s costumes unfortunately didn’t do her justice.
Although the telecast had both highs and lows, it was Underwood’s poor performance that a majority of viewers and critics focused on. The hate-tweets continued; mocking memes floated through social websites during the telecast and negative reviews surfaced the following morning.
“Nobody can solve the problem of this Maria,” Alessandra Stanley began her negative review in the New York Times, “‘Idol,’ Meet the Traps: The Perils of Tinkering with Favorite Things,” the following day.
While many professionals lament having their jobs being taken by people who are cast solely for their “names,” as opposed to talent, it is hard to imagine that the telecast would have garnered the attention it did without someone as widely known as Underwood.
“It’s a double-edged sword because getting exposure for musical theatre on a national level is a positive thing, but you have to understand the realities of the marketplace — because the only way a telecast like this could happen is with someone like Carrie Underwood in the lead,” Jessica Hillman-McCord, theatre professor and former director of the 2011 production of “The Sound of Music,” said. “And although she is a great country singer, Carrie Underwood has no training as an actress. It does underscore the fact that musical theater acting is a skill that takes training, and that is why we work very hard here to train singing actors, not just singers.”
Although it garnered negative reviews, the network saw huge ratings. According to Broadway.com, at 18.5 million total viewers it was NBC’s biggest non-sports show since the series finale of ER in 2009.
While many people showed their distaste for Underwood’s performance, others applauded NBC’s ability to draw attention to musical theater and introduce a classic to a new generation.
“This network that is telecasting the live performance knows people are going to think negatively, but there is a whole generation of people whose parents did not make them watch The Sound of Music,” Voss said. “And maybe this live performance will open up that wonderful world again.”