Carrie Underwood As Maria Von Trapp?! Sound Off On NBC's 'Sound Of Music' Redo
Carrie Underwood may be a talented, Grammy-winning (heck, everything-winning) country music superstar and the perky, blonde success story that justifies American Idol's iron grip on pop culture — but can she make the hills come alive as Maria von Trapp in NBC's Sound of Music?
That's what Chicago & Hairspray producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron must believe, because the pair (who are also producing the upcoming Oscars telecast) aren't just tapping the reigning Queen of Country to fill Julie Andrews' iconic clogs, they're also taking the ballsy step of doing it in a live broadcast.
A live broadcast: That rare beast so prevalent in the early days of television when performers didn't need auto-tune and could pull off the highwire act of beaming their performance into millions of homes as it happened, flubs and all.
“Speaking for everyone at NBC, we couldn't be happier to have the gifted Carrie Underwood take up the mantle of the great Maria von Trapp,” said NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt (via THR). “She was an iconic woman who will now be played by an iconic artist.”
Maybe it's the shock of hearing that anyone would dare remake one of the greatest musicals of all time — or that Underwood, who's certainly built an empire for herself cobbled together from platinum-selling albums and songs about keying her boyfriend's car and guest appearances on How I Met Your Mother, has the hubris to say, Yes, I can be the Julie freaking Andrews of a new generation — but Underwood as the wide-eyed nun fleeing Nazis in the Swiss Alps doesn't quite compute.
Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp sounds about as right as Nick Jonas as Marius in Les Miserables. (Then again, Zadan and Meron cast Jonas as a Broadway superstar on NBC's Smash, so... yeah.)
[Watch Underwood perform "The Sound of Music" on CBS, h/t @gerradhall.]
What do you think of Underwood as Maria, and NBC's holiday live-broadcast remake of The Sound of Music? Sound off below, my little lonely goatherds?
[THR]
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Comments
Carrie is an amazing artist and your article is awfully negtive before you even give her a chance! She did great in that video you posted above! Comparing her to the Jonas brothers is rude and uncalled for when she has won 5 Grammys and over 100 major industry awards!
You posted her amazing performance of Sound of Music yet you trash her anyway? The video you posted clearly shows she can do this part-- and do it well!
Hardly amazing, but I've read in a few places she was sick that day - but I'm not trashing her singing at all. A) She's relatively unproven as an actress, B) her singing style really doesn't work for Sound of Music to my ear, and C) WHY REMAKE THE SOUND OF MUSIC?
I love Carrie Underwood! I am just skeptical about this role for her. The Sound of Music is one of my top 5 favs, I have a hard time accepting anyone in the role other than Julie Andrews. But....if anyone could do it right....it's Carrie.
Um. I don't want to troll, and I certainly wish her best, but I personally wouldn't call her performance in the video above "amazing". Her pitch tends to wobble, and while she's trying - and you can HEAR her trying, not a good sign - she doesn't have Julie Andrew's fantastic projection (the comparison is unfortunate but inevitable).
I'm certainly not saying Carrie Underwood is a *bad* singer, but I don't think she was the right choice for this role - especially as a live performance.
Yeah, Carrie Underwood? Great singer. I just think she's wrong, wrong, wrong for the role and the musical. Even in the video her style clashes with the material.
That was NOT a soaring performance, esp. when compared to Julie Andrews.
Typical NBC C#@p...STOP IT BEFORE it happens!!! Do NOT disrespect the original! Julie please come out and say something!!! STOP it...STOP it NOW! Carrie is a "fair" country singer(not our choice for this project but that is beside the point). Even considering a project like this is WRONG. Why do a masterpiece over again? Just to promote someone and get a few extra ad dollars. All of these "remade" movies are insulting to the originals!
We feel this project is very wrong! It is like having a famous subway tagger repaint the Mona Lisa and promote it a great new thing...it would be junk! Do NOT continue with this project! Thank you.
I love Carrie Underwood! I am just skeptical about this role for her. The Sound of Music is one of my top 5 favorite movies.