Cut The Girl Some Slack: An Amateur Actor's Perspective on NBC's Remake of 'The Sound of Music'

Unless you've been living under a social media rock, you've heard about NBC's attempt at bringing live musical theater back to the television with the classic show Sound of Music. If so, you've also seen the gleeful, glowing reviews from fans as well as the groans from the chorus of horrified theater buffs. It seems that it's either one or the other.

Me? Well, those of you who know me know that I lean towards the latter group mentioned above. I wasn't always that way. But when you spend as much time as I have in recent years watching and acting in shows, you gain appreciation for truly excellent productions, as well as high-minded snobbery for, well... the other stuff.

Disclaimer

I need to preface this review with a big disclaimer: I had a bias coming into this. It's important to get that out in the open, so I can try to overcome it and come at this in an objective way.

So what do I mean by a bias? Well, it isn't just that I consider this one of my favorite shows of all time, both on stage and on the silver screen. It isn't just that I grew up on the original film as a youngster, constantly singing the songs, and heading to the Muny with family every summer it showed. It's not even that I acted in a production of the Sound of Music, and was honored to play the role of the captain (and so as a result, I still know this show like the back of my hand front of my computer screen).

I guess a big part of it is that I'm pretty cynical when it comes to the media, especially television studios. They're out to make a buck, and they don't care about ruining classics. They'll do anything to get those views. Including casting folks whose names are bigger than their acting talent.

The Good

All things considered, there was a lot to like about this project. First of all, I'm glad they chose to go with the Broadway musical version of the story. I actually prefer this to the movie script, but more on that in the Extra, Extra! section below

The vocals were, on the whole, absolutely stunning. I'm not denying, Carrie has some pipes. If you don't believe me, go listen to her sing "How Great Thou Art" . There were times that her voice got a little more edgy than I would have liked, but other than that she had some excellent musical interpretation.

And Audra McDonald as the Mother Abbess. My. GOODNESS! That heavenly voice alone may have saved the project from utter destruction in my mind. You know her rendition of "Climb Every Mountain" is good when you've heard the song a million times, you're a guy, and you still end up tearing up. In fact, I even saw Carrie tear up, and I'm pretty sure those tears weren't voluntary.

Many of the supporting roles were great. The housekeeper was absolutely perfect. Ralph had quite a different spin on his part than the movie, but I liked it. The nuns played their parts well. The kids were cute, but then again, when are the Von Trapp kids ever not cute?

The set was very impressive. It was sort of a quasi musical, where the scenes were all near to one another (I'm guessing a studio), but more professional like a movie, where the individual sets were separate so they could smoothly transition from one to the other. They did some cool things with this, like Maria leaving the Von Trapp home and the entire wall shooting up to reveal the Abbey. The camera shots were also impressive. They had more camera angles than probably the original film did, yet I never saw a stray cameraman.

Just a random comment, but it's also an indirect compliment to the tech team: Where in the world were their microphones? I didn't see a microphone the whole show, but they managed to pick up the audio perfectly, even for moving actors. If you know, please give me a hint in the comments.

The Bad

You may have noticed that I sometimes use "project" when I refer to it, instead of "musical", or "live", or "film". That's because I still really have no idea which it was. While the idea behind this whole thing may have been well-intentioned, I feel some poor decisions were made in production.

Was it a movie, or was it a "live" show? Really, it was neither. In my opinion, it was the worst of both worlds. It had the you've-only-got-one-take imperfections of a live musical, but it wasn't really live, in the sense that there was no live audience. It felt dry, like watching a rehearsal. To a casual observer, maybe that isn't a big deal. But as someone who has been under the spotlights a few times now, I can tell you it makes a huge difference.

The beauty of live theater is the interaction between the cast and audience. In this project, the jokes fell flat, because there was nobody to laugh at them. The musical numbers didn't give the actors a boost, as there was no thunderous applause from the audience. There weren't the barely audible aww's from the crowd when the captain breaks down and embraces his children for the first time.

But let's talk about the 'serious' problems:

• That had to have been the saddest captain's whistle ever. Sorry to break it to you cap, but an owl wouldn't be able to hear that thing from 20 feet away. I know they're not easy to find; I had to order 2 or 3 of them before I found one that had that true shrill tone. But let me tell you, if I had wanted to, I could have busted every sound system (and eardrum) in the auditorium with that sucker.
• The dancing at the party was not at all period, aside from the Landler. I don't claim to be a big period dance history buff, but since when were Austrians in the 1930's throwing their women up in the air? I know, it's just eye candy - but still!
• No magical glass pagoda where everyone who enters falls in love?!? FAIL.

The Ugly

So a lot of you are wondering, "forget the small stuff, what about...?" Ok, let's address the elephant in the room. Carrie Underwood has many talents, of that there is no doubt. But as was painfully displayed in this project, acting is not yet one of them.

Was it just me, or was the "ugly" dress not all that ugly? 

Now, let me make another disclaimer here. I don't criticize another actor's ability because I feel myself superior in my abilities. In fact, even though I've done my fair share of acting, I still don't really know what I'm doing theory-wise, I just go out and do my thing. However, I do give myself credit on knowing good acting from bad.

I'm sorry, but certain scenes were just flat out painful to watch. The first time I sat down to watch it, I had to turn it off after the first 15 minutes. However, I think she was nervous in the first couple scenes. She seemed to loosen up as the night went on.

And hey, let's cut the girl some slack. Carrie Underwood came into this gig with a lot going against her:

1. From scene one, she's being compared to an all-time great, Julie Andrews. In fact, as soon as she was cast as Maria, she started getting hate mail such as "Who do you think you are? You're not Julie Andrews!". This really isn't fair. No, she isn't Julie Andrews, nor will anyone ever be in my opinion. In most people's minds, Julie Andrews is Fraulein Maria.
2. She had to break free of her current image as an America-Idol-winning, Country-music-swingin' cowgirl. It's hard to accept her as a Austrian Nun when the whole time you're expecting her in the next scene to come out belting the Sunday Night Football song.
3. This project was a remake of something that didn't need to be remade. It's cute that they wanted to make a "fresh look" at a classic for a new generation, but why? To me, there is very little that would have made the original picture better. I know this is the thinking in a lot of people's minds, and unfortunately for Carrie, as poster-girl of the project, she had to bear most of that frustration.
4. The part of Fraulein Maria is an extremely difficult role on many fronts, but especially the emotional front. She nailed her songs, she did well on the dancing, she looked the part, she had great chemistry with the kids. Unfortunately, her emotions were completely lacking.

That's really what it boiled down to: she was just emotionally flat. I'm not saying she wasn't trying, I really believe Carrie thought she gave it her all out there. Ultimately, it fell very short. Her delivery of lines, her tone of voice, her body language, her facial expressions hardly changed at all throughout the entire show.

That's what makes or breaks an actor, especially in theater. Emotion is what allows the audience to relate to the characters. Actors have to give so much more of themselves than they think they need to. How much emotion an actor thinks they are conveying is only a fraction of the amount required. It's something that experienced actors have just gotten used to.

Carrie just isn't there yet. This is a whole new world for her. But people should not be hating on her as much as NBC. NBC could have picked a hundred different people with more acting experience for the job. And yes, she could have seen this coming and declined the role. But really, would you have turned this down?

Conclusion

This project had its quirks, but was not as bad as some make it out to be, or as bad as I made it sound after watching the first 15 minutes of it. Even though her acting was borderline terrible, Carrie gave it her best shot, so let's not fault her for that. Overall, I'd say you have a duty to watch this at least once, so you can decide for yourself. A lot of people I talked to loved it.

Extra, extra!

I know, I said I wasn't going to compare. But just for fun, I have decided to do a head-to-head comparison of the cast of NBC's remake, and the original 1965 film. In each match-up, I listed the actor/actress from NBC's remake, followed by their counterpart in the original.

Maria: Carrie Underwood (3) vs. Julie Andrews (10)

This one is not even close, so I'm not going to spend any more time on it. Julie Andrews is Maria, and Carrie Underwood is not Julie Andrews.

Captain Von Trapp: John Moyer (7) vs. Christopher Plumber (8):

This one was close. John Moyer did an excellent job as the Captain. He had the character down. He did great at contrasting the hard, stern sea captain with the newly discovered #1 dad.

However, I just find Christopher Plumber to be more believable. John just looked too young for the part. Our family's reaction to his first scene was "Wait... HE'S the captain?" I know, This is ironic coming from someone who played the captain at the ripe old age of 20, but whatever.

I never cared all that much for Christopher Plumber's portrayal, until I watched the remake. It was then that I realized the genius of how he played it. The empty far-away stares, the sometimes wild looks, but the never-back-down determination helped define the role.

Elsa Schrader: Laura Benanti (9) vs. Eleanor Parker (7):

The remake pulls off its first win! Though really, this almost has more to do with the underlying reason I prefer the Broadway script over the movie: the captain's relationship with the Baroness. In the Broadway version, the reason the two break up is mostly because of their differing political philosophies - not just because the captain not-so-secretly loves somebody else.

However, that does not take anything away from Laura Benanti's portrayal. She had the perfect amount of cunning, but you could tell that her love for the captain was sincere. If you watch nothing else, go to 64:45 of the video. I've never seen a better, more sarcastic "Oh. How nice :)"

Mother Abbess: Audra McDonald (9) vs. Peggy Wood (9):

Let me say it again. Audra McDonald was simply amazing.

This was a part that I thought could get no better. Even though Peggy Wood was just a classic and is probably a lot more historically accurate (age-wise), Audra McDonald knocked my socks off from the first scene, both with her acting and her vocal performance.

Uncle Max: Christian Borle (5) vs. Richard Haydn (10):

Sorry Christian, but this wasn't even a fair fight. If I could give Mr. Haydn an 11, I would. Richard Haydn absolutely owned this role. His constant optimistic charm and spunk made it easy to realize why the children loved him so much.

Leisl Von Trapp: Ariane Rinehart (9) vs. Charmian Carr (8)

No, I didn't just rate Ariane higher because she is from St. Louis and was a Muny kid (although that is cool). Although both actresses did great in their roles, I just found Ariane to be more believable as a 16 year old. She seemed to play the part more from the perspective of a girl, rather than a young woman.

Rolf: Michael Campayno (6) vs. Daniel Truhitte (8):

Michael Campayno wasn't bad in his role, he just didn't come across with the same charm that Daniel Truhitte did in the original film. I felt like he did try to take his role with a new twist, but it just wasn't all that spectacular.

Oh, and those shorts. Help us.

Friedrich Von Trapp: Michael Nigro (5) vs. Nicholas Hammond (6):

Friedrich doesn't get much attention in either the Broadway or film version, so there's not a lot to say here. I gave Nicholas the extra point because between the two, he definitely looks the part. Agreed?

Louisa Von Trapp: Ella Watts-Gorman (5) vs. Heather Menzies (6):

Again, this is a part that doesn't have much individual exposure. Both played the part very differently, and both did well at that. Heather seemed more convincing to me in the role, so I'm giving her the nudge.

Kurt Von Trapp: Joe West (8) vs. Duane Chase (7):

This is a crucial role. Who else in this story gets has to belt out an insanely high "Good-Byyyyyyyye!"? As cute and funny as Duane Chase was in the original film, I'm giving this one to Joe West, if only for how well he hit that note. You could have split granite with that thing.

Brigitta Von Trapp: Sophia Anne Caruso (7) vs. Angela Cartwright (6):

This was hard to judge, as this part was written very differently in the movie than it is on Broadway. In the Broadway version it is Brigitta, not the baroness, who tells Maria that the captain is in love with her. She is portrayed as a feisty little imp. The movie takes a much different direction, where Brigitta is more laid back and sweet.

Even though I thought Sophia may have been forcing a few of her lines, I'm giving her this one mostly based on my preference for the Broadway version of the role.

Marta Von Trapp: Grace Rundhaug (7) vs. Debbie Turner (7):

They both want a pink parasol on their 7th birthday. They're both cute as buttons when they say it. Can't we just leave it at that?

Gretl: Peyton Ella (4) vs. Kym Karath (9):

This is undoubtedly the most exposed role of the Von Trapp children second to Liesl. She is the face of the children's relationship with their father. And Ok, she's the youngest, so she's the baby.

This was a pretty easy decision for me. Kym was so perfect in this role, it seemed it had been written just for her. Peyton Ella's portrayal was adorable, but just didn't feel as natural as Kym Karath.

Final Score:

Final score? 98-87, good guys. Er, I mean the original cast. Didn't I tell you I had a bias? And if you weighted the scores by screen time... We're not even going to go there.

Don't smile at this picture, I dare you.