The Sound Of Music Live! (2013)

I like Carrie Underwood as a country pop star, so I was excited to watch, but I was also prepared for a hot awf-some mess. What I got was actually a rather professional and delightful time. The stigma of "strong effort" aside, the performances are not bad at all! Purists who hate-watch are bound to hate it, but they forget that much of the magic of theatre is its mutability. Carrie Underwood belts live with so much power, brightness, and vibrato - which is obviously different from Julie Andrews's graceful soprano, but not BAD per se. Her face is sort of a charisma vacuum in the non-singing scenes, but she does get effectively teary in the emotionally-heightened scenes. I don't know much about Stephen Moyer, but I like his angular looks better than I like Christopher Plummer's whom I found both strict yet slack. Moyer's voice isn't the strongest, but it's at least pleasing to the ear. He's known more as an actor, and he acts well with his whole body through the extra songs that aren't in the movie. Stage and screen veterans, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle, are clearly the most consistent and are given more to do in this stage version. I had never seen a stage production of "The Sound of Music" before, and the [dis]placement of songs cheesed me a little with the repetitive "My Favorite Things," the too-soon "Do-Re-Mi," and the puppet-less "The Lonely Goatherd." I'm also surprised that the film is so long, considering all the good dialogue cut out. Georg, Max, and Elsa and their respective stances on politics are more fleshed out, and Brigitta is a substantial supporting part for a child actor.