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| Carrie Underwood tries very hard in NBC's "The Sound of Music Live!" |
Allow me to begin by giving Carrie Underwood a great deal of
credit. She has balls. She took on one of the iconic roles in all of
stage and screen: Maria von Trapp, a part that won Mary Martin a Tony in 1960
and Julie Andrews an Oscar nomination in 1966.
The Sound of Music itself took
home the Tony for Best Musical and the Oscar for Best Picture in the years in
which it was nominated. This is a role
that has transcended theatre and even film to become ingrained in our cultural
consciousness. Hell, Jaguar has built an
entire marketing campaign around “the hills are alive with the sound of XFR-S” And to not just take on the role, but to
perform it live with, let’s face it, real actors, takes balls.
And, to tell the truth, she wasn’t terrible. She wasn’t Julie Andrews by any stretch of
the imagination, but really, who would be?
Underwood actually surprised me on several occasions with the lyricality
of her voice. While I wouldn’t exactly
refer to her rendition of “The Lonely Goatherd” as “yodeling,” she kept enough
lightness in her voice to not just survive the song, but actually make it fun and entertaining. There were only a few parts (most notably her
“Mis” in “Do-Re-Mi” and one line near the end of “The Lonely Goatherd”) where
her singing wasn’t quite up to par. The
fault there, however, belongs more to her background as a country singer than
to her talent, because when she able to focus on vocal technique, she was actually quite
good. But when she had to multitask and
put her voice on autopilot, her lack of classical training showed as her vowels
flattened and her tone grew nasally.
That didn’t happen often, though, and for the most part she sang the
part of Maria far better than I had expected.
While she may have sung the part well, the same can’t be
said of her acting. She wasn’t flubbing
her lines or missing her marks or anything, but the best that can be said of
Underwood’s acting performance is that it was nonexistent. Her face was expressionless throughout much
of the show. Her speaking voice rarely
varied from a “what’s my next line” monotone.
She had no chemistry with Bill Moyer’s Captain Von Trapp leading me to
wonder what on earth made the Mother Abbess believe that Maria was actually in
love with him. There was even a moment
when Maria mistakenly calls him “Reverend” but Underwood’s delivery was so flat that it was impossible to tell
whether this was the character’s mistake or the actor’s.
It was especially difficult to watch Underwood muddle
through because the supporting cast was filled out with superb broadway
veterans, most notably Audra McDonald as the Mother Abbess, who absolutely ran
away with every scene she was in and seemed to be putting on a master class
with Underwood any time the two were left alone together. Her performance of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," in particular, sent chills down my spine and clearly brought Underwood to real, literal tears. Likewise, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle
shone brightly as Elsa and Max, at times making me wonder what Von Trapp saw in
the bumpkin that would make him want to stop hanging out with the obviously
much more fun and lively Nazi sympathizers.
Wait…I think I may have answered my own question.
The supporting cast also all brought a sense of vivacity and
liveliness to a stage production that could have easily felt dead on
television. And it was impossible to
ignore that this was, in fact, a stage production broadcast live. The lavish sets were able to brighten most
scenes, but the fact is that all live, scripted broadcasts tend to look and
feel like soap operas, and The Sound of
Music was no exception.
Additionally, the need to keep everybody’s microphones on left a soft,
dull white noise lingering over the entire production. Still, it was obvious that a great deal of
time and money (a rumored $9 million) went into creating a production that went
off largely without a hitch.
That a live televised production of a stage musical was
performed this well is something of a small miracle, let alone the fact that it
was a smash hit, drawing in 18.62 million viewers (peaking at over 19 million)
and a 4.6 rating. Basically, The Sound of Music put up three straight
hours of ratings rivaling The Big Bang
Theory on a night when NBC has, at least once this season, finished in
seventh place, behind the other three networks, NFL Network, TBS, and Univision. For even more perspective, that’s the best
non-sports rating NBC has gotten for a Thursday night since the ER finale in 2009 and the most
non-sports viewers they’ve had since the Frasier
finale in 2004. I don’t think even NBC
predicted a reception (in viewers at least if not critically) like this.
So where do we go from here?
Certainly, if television history has taught us anything, it’s that when
a network finds a success they ride that horse into the ground. But for once, I’m actually excited about that
prospect. It’s clear that there’s an
audience for live theatre that doesn’t want to buy $100 tickets and flights to
New York. Just look at the success that
the Metropolitan Opera has had broadcasting its performances live to movie
theatres. Certainly, there’s a portion
of the audience who were watching because of Carrie and Underwood and there was
likely another portion watching just in case some disaster befell the
production (after all, 13 million people watched a guy walk a tightrope for
twenty minutes to see if he'd fall into the Grand Canyon). But as anybody who was
on Twitter or Facebook last night can tell, there’s a certain visceral feeling
that comes from communally enjoying (or hate-watching) live television that
can’t be found in normal programming.
So expect event television to become a much bigger piece of the network landscape It may not necessarily come in the form of live musicals*, but the networks need shows that will attract viewers from all walks of life. And even though The Sound of Music wasn’t a rousing
success, I can’t think of that as anything but wonderful. Television needs variety. Hell, variety has its own Emmy category. It also needs galvanizing events (beyond
sports) that will bring viewers together.
The Sound of Music wasn’t
perfect, but it signaled good things for the future of television.
*Though might I suggest
following up The Sound of Music with Wicked starring Kristin Chenowith and Idina Menzel
or, if you’re still looking for a classic, West Side Story.
A couple of spare thoughts -
Good lord this show needed a live audience. I was stunned when there wasn't any applause after the opening number and, while it's not exactly a funny musical, there are a handful of jokes, and they all fell completely flat without any audience laughter.
And while Underwood wasn't great, she was much, much better in her scenes with the Von Trapp kids. They brought a liveliness out of her and made her seem much more present in their scenes.
So thoughts?
Comments? Just want to tell me my
blog sucks? Let me know in the comments
or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.
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