![\"sound-of-music\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/sound-of-music.jpg\")
THE SOUND OF MUSIC<\/b><\/h1>\nTHE SOUND OF MUSIC<\/b><\/h1>\nOkay, so I let the first NBC showing of The Sound of Music<\/i> with Carrie Underwood go. I figured, she\u2019s a good singer, she\u2019ll be good, not great. She\u2019s pretty much just a ratings draw, anyway.<\/p>\n
Then after reading some of the reviews and seeing how well it did\u2014and that they were going to show it again\u2014I decided to DVR it, which, really, is what I should have done in the first place, when it was performed live.<\/p>\n
After all, whether or not Carrie Underwood is any good, let alone as good as the movie\u2019s Julie Andrews or Broadway\u2019s Mary Martin, isn\u2019t the point. The point is, a major network is taking the risk of bringing live theater, live music<\/i> theater, back to television. Good or bad, it deserves my, indeed our<\/i>, support.<\/p>\n
![\"Peter-Pan-Mary-Martin\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Peter-Pan-Mary-Martin-210x300.jpg\")
So, okay, I saw it, and it really was very good, I thought, and yes, Underwood is the weak link. Not horrible by any stretch. For sure, she has a big enough voice, as proven with her TV contest win and recording career so far. But as a musical theater actress, she lacks the presence of her predecessors\u2014who were steeped in it\u2014not to mention five-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald.<\/p>\n
Still, Underwood was more than winning enough as Maria to carry The Sound of Music<\/i> to a new TV generation, and maybe, hopefully, a new generation of Rodgers & Hammerstein fans, and beyond. At least the first showing of the new Sound of Music<\/i> was not only unexpectedly strong enough to merit a second one, but to encourage the network to order up a second live musical for next year\u2019s holiday season\u2014this, instead of, say, another generic music awards show.<\/p>\n
And while I won\u2019t suggest casting, I\u2019d love to see them decide on a remake of Peter Pan<\/i>, knowing full well that whomever they choose can\u2019t possibly live up to Mary Martin\u2019s classic 1960 live NBC-TV performance, which, incidentally, is available in full on YouTube.<\/p>\n
Good enough, really, is more<\/i> than good enough, all things considered.<\/p>\n
Jim Bessman<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE SOUND OF MUSIC Live Music Theater on Television Okay, so I let the first NBC showing of The Sound of Music with Carrie Underwood go. I figured, she\u2019s a good singer, she\u2019ll be good, not great. She\u2019s pretty much just a ratings draw, anyway. Then after reading some of the reviews and seeing how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4976,1058],"tags":[955,7314],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11380,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11377\/revisions\/11380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}