Let me preference this blog post: It is my personal opinion
and review of the event Sound of Music Live, but more than that, people are
allowed to have opinions whether they loved or hated it. The beauty of theatre
is that everybody gets something different out of it. Above all I applaud all
of the hard work that was put into such a fantastic event, and am thrilled that
“theatre” was brought to the masses. Now to Lys’s thoughts…
First off, a live “theatre” event on television?! Freaking
awesome! I have never been so excited to watch something on TV, and I
absolutely hope they do more! I understand that they needed to start with a
classic because it’s recognizable, but I’d love to see some less known shows,
mainly, ones that haven’t already been made into movies.
Now you may be wondering why I keep putting “theatre” in
quotes, mainly because I wouldn’t really call this production theatre. Theatre
to me is doing a performance in front of a live audience of people. Now I’m
told there were people at the screening, but they weren’t allowed to applaud,
laugh, make noise etc. Also, these actors had cameras all around them. I’d like
to propose that this is some medium in between television and theatre…let’s
call it Theatvision. Next time (please let there be a next time) I wouldn’t
mind some audience reaction and bows! So theatre made for television: YAY!
In order to make theatre for television you have to have
loads of money, and lord knows there is not money in theatre! So before I get
too far into this whole Carrie Underwood ordeal, I will say this: they gave her
this role because everyone knows and loves her and she is bringing in the
dollar dollar bills yall. However, this does not mean that theatre people are
NOT allowed to be upset that it was not a Broadway person in her shoes. Of
course I know hundreds of actors who could play that part flawlessly, but none
of them are as famous to America as their Idol, Carrie Underwood. Welcome to the world of a theatre actor: film
stars or anyone with a recognizable name often plays the main parts on
Broadway. It’s how we get an audience; it’s how we get money to do theatre. As
unfortunate as it is, it puts the truly talented theatre actors in plays and
all theatre people in jobs. It is a sad, sad truth in the industry, and we are
allowed to be pissed about it, but also, money rules the world, and we need to
get over it.
Before I touch on the specific production, I would like to
point out a couple of things to the social media guru’s. Why do people keep
saying, “As long as we inspired one kid to fall in love with theatre tonight,
it was a success.” Um, I’m sorry, was that the point of this production? Because
we could have done Beauty in the Beast or Little Mermaid. I’m pretty sure it
was for everyone in America to enjoy a new kind of event of an old classic that
the whole family could enjoy (and bring in lots of money!). That’s right, it
wasn’t to inspire kids, though I hope it did. It wasn’t to turn America into theatregoers,
though I hope it does. And it wasn’t for the Broadway community to see a
fantastic production of SOM, though I hoped it would. I will be the first to
tell you that I certainly wanted it to be the best thing I’d seen on tv in
years!
So now to the specific production! The choreography came
across very well on camera. It was theatrically inspired, but definitely
suitable for tv without being overly animated. I love a lot of Rob Ashford’s
work, and most of the direction was great except when Captain Von Trapp sings
for the first time, and he’s not even looking at his children?! The set was
gorgeous, and thanks to the beauty of television they didn’t have to do scene
changes, they just got to move around a big warehouse (another thing that
doesn’t make it true theatre, just saying). I thought the costumes were
beautiful, although I was confused when Captain Von Trapp tells Maria she has
on a nice dress when she is wearing a skirt suit. Also, the wedding dress kinda
looked like a tablecloth, but whatever. One of the best parts of the whole
production was the songs. They were sung beautifully, and I can’t stop
listening to most of the soundtrack. A lot of people were upset that Lonely
Goatherd was sung during the Maria bedroom scene. I know My Favorite Things
sounds so much better there, but in the play version Lonely Goatherd is what is
sung then.
As far as acting goes, I think we can all get down on our
knees and bow to Audra McDonald and Laura Benanti who, in my opinion, stole the
whole performance. And it is worth watching just to see them thrive. I cried
during Climb Every Mountain along with Carrie, and this is the first production
where I wanted Elsa to marry the captain because I couldn’t stop watching her! She
even made me giggle…way to find the humor! No Way to Stop it is one of my
favorite songs ever, I just needed to say that. Christian Borle was also great
as Max, but I think he could have taken it even farther if he wanted to throw a
little Black Stache into it. The kids were fine. Kurt can definitely sing and
has a future ahead of him, some of the others I felt were totally overacting or
just clueless. Liesl and Rolfe were cute and talented. Admit it, we all just
wanted Stephen Moyer take off his shirt. Carrie was a beautiful singer, and as
everyone has already said, not a good actor. I don’t blame her, I know she
tried…I’m just wondering where the acting coach was? At least they could have
gotten her out of her vocal speech pattern. For those of you who loved her
acting, come to Broadway, you will literally be blown out of the water. And for
those people that are excusing her acting saying, “Well she was nervous, and it
was live”. Um YEAH! That’s what theatre is- LIVE every night! That is
absolutely not an excuse. Not experienced, yeah, I’ll take that. Actually,
maybe it will make people realize that acting isn’t all that easy and respect
us more. But that’s all I’m gonna say about that!
It’s funny to me some theatre people are getting mad at
other theatre people for dissing the performance saying we are suppose to act
as a community. Part of being in theatre is being critical! Who doesn’t leave a
show and critique every little thing good or bad. It’s okay to not like
something, and it doesn’t mean we aren’t incredibly proud of everyone working
on it and putting on shows. Basically whether you loved or hated it, I’m glad
you watched it. That’s what supporting the theatre community is: bringing 19
million viewers a glimpse into “theatre”, or theatvision. ;)
Listen, was it perfect? No, absolutely not. Was it cool that 19 million households watched and that we’ll have Sound of Music stuck in our
heads for the next 3 weeks? Yeah, that’s awesome. Not sure I will ever watch it
in its entirety again, but I’m not sure I should. If it’s theatre, you can only
see that exact production one time anytime. I did enjoy my 3 hour sing-a-long
in my kitchen. Alone. And I want to have Audra’s babies…
