NBC’s ambitious three-hour ‘Sound of Music Live!’ stage event aired last night and this morning’s reviews suggest that Carrie Underwood is a far better singer than she is an actress.
Early Nielsen figures show 18.5 million viewers turned in, the network’s biggest Thursday audience (excluding football) since 2004.
The former ‘American Idol’ winner was thrilled to have it behind her. She tweeted, “Glory to God tonight…I couldn’t be more proud. What a tough thing to pull off and we did it! I am so blessed!!!”
The Hollywood Reporter: “The production itself came off without a hitch — no easy feat with so many moving parts and opportunities for blown lines or staircase stumbles. Without Underwood and Moyer selling us on their legendary love story, ‘The Sound of Music Live’ plays like very expensive karaoke.”
Variety: “It’s hard not to root for this earnest adaptation to enjoy a measure of success, if only to encourage networks to continue to brave such events. In terms of feeling like this production genuinely delivered, that’s one mountain ‘The Sound of Music Live!’ just couldn’t climb.”
New York Daily News: “The production itself was bathed in warm colors and had an engaging look, somewhere between theater and film. If there wasn’t the soaring exhilaration of a Broadway product, it felt more than a TV show.”
ABC News: “Somehow the cast and crew of NBC’s three-hour live telecast pulled it off with only a trodden-on dress, some inconsistent sound levels and a flubbed few words. Underwood got us to watch, yet it was Borle, Benanti and McDonald who showed the world how to hold a moonbeam in your hand.”
TV Line asked their readers to take a ‘morning after’ poll. So far 21.7 percent deemed it Excellent, 28.5 percent claim it was Very Good, and a full 25 percent consider it OK. That leaves 24 percent who gave it a Subpar or Fail rating.
As much as we wanted to seriously love the three-hour production, it is clear that Carrie Underwood as Maria and Stephen Moyer as Captain von Trapp did not have chemistry.
We think the Daily Beast got it right with their assessment: “The experience of watching ‘The Sound of Music Live!’ was a bit of an exhausting one. Not a bad one. Not a good one. But one that took energy.”
“Though the country singer was nowhere near perfect, it’s the least we can do to drop any cynicism over the project and harsh reaction to the execution of it and appreciate the huge gamble and brave undertaking it was to reanimate those mountains.”
Photo: Twitter-Sound of Music Live!