The Sound of Music......I Liked The Movie Better

The Sound of Music was a huge part of my childhood.
It's my mom's favorite movie, and she bought the movie on tape when I was really little (or she might've stolen it from my great grandma. The memory is a little fuzzy). For almost my entire life Julie Andrews singing "raindrops on roses" has echoed through my house, and we've all accepted it as a regular thing that isn't slightly obsessive on my mom's part.
So of course, when my mom heard that NBC was doing a live show, she nearly had a heart attack from happiness.
Seriously, in the middle of science on Thursday she sent me a text that nearly got my phone taken away (but I was a total ninja and silenced my phone before Mrs. Z could place who's pocket the Doctor Who theme was coming from), that said I can't wait to watch the Sound of Music with all of you tonight! :). Bottom line, this was a big deal.
So Thursday night, we all sat down on the couch with our dinner and turned the t.v on. Actually, that was a lie. I was up in my room franticly trying to finish my homework so I could go down and watch with the rest of my family. I got down there when the nuns were singing "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
For the next three hours, we watched the musical version of The Sound of Music, which none of us had seen before, and I must say......it was a little disappointing.

Mostly I had problems with the casting.

From: www.nydailynews.com

Now, it's impossible to top the embodiment talent that is Julie Andrews, and it's certainly difficult for any actress that plays Maria to follow in her footsteps. But look at this picture.
<- Do you believe for a second that Carrie Underwood is Maria? All I can see is someone with WAY too much foundation who thinks that wearing sorta Austrian clothes and putting her hair in that braid thing makes her Maria.
Her acting in this was pretty much DREADFUL, but I guess I can't blame her for that since she's a singer by trade. Speaking of that, she was excellent with the singing part. Though it wasn't Julie Andrews, she did a very good job with singing the songs with the right attitude (most of the time), and was very powerful.

From:www.buffalonews.com

So this guy is Stephen Moyer. He's apparently a big deal on True Blood and my mom was freaking out about it for some reason. He played Georg Von Trapp, and I was extremely underwhelmed. I don't really know why he got the part. When he was 'stern' it looked much more like he was about to throw up or something. Also he wasn't a very good singer. He managed, but he didn't preform.

From:mamamich-mjay.blogspot.com

Again, he had some big shoes to fill. I mean look at this.
Look at this gorgeousness that is mid 1960's Christopher Plumber. Seriously, he was my first fangirl crush at the ripe ol' age of 10 when I was first starting to realize that boys might not be incredibly disgusting.
Have you HEARD him sing 'Edelweiss'? Have you HEARD THAT SINGING VOICE!?
*swoons*

From: www.broadwayworld.com

I don't have many complaints about the kids.
Liesel was sort of bratty, but I guess all 16 year olds are.
Freidrick was the only one I genuinely didn't like, but he didn't do much so it was okay.
Louisia was okay. She was spunky and it worked.
Kurt was a big ball of cute. That's all there really is to say on the matter.
Brigita was hilarious and filled with sass. It was awesome.
Marta was adorable, but cutely annoying.
Gretel.....I want to say bad things, but I can't cus she was such a cutie. So I'll just grit my teeth and say she was fine.


All the minor characters seemed to be fine casting. I'm pretty sure they were the actual broadway people that did this sort of thing for a living, which would explain why they were so much better than the others.

I know that this was the musical version of the story, but being a girl that grew up on the movie, I was a little confused by the differences. I know all you theater buffs are flipping your tables right now and screaming about how the musical is so much better than the movie. But hey, I'm entitled to my opinion, especially since this is a REVIEW blog.
Besides some audio problems, the rest of the musical was great!
The costumes were very fashionable, and looked right for the era.
The sets were AMAZING. Seriously, these sets were beautiful with a capital b. They built a freaking FOREST for pete's sake! Here's a scene where you can get a grasp for it.
The choreography worked for the show, I think? I'm not a big dancer, or choreographer, so I don't really know about the art of dance.

In conclusion, this is one of those rare cases where I liked the movie better. Though I think that this musical was a great project, and it went well as a whole, it just didn't work for me.