NBC Universal partnered with the Oscar and Emmy award-winning production team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Chicago, Smash) under the direction of Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford to give the world a holiday surprise with the television event The Sound of Music Live! a live telecast based on the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, starring Grammy winner Carrie Underwood as Maria and British actor Stephen Moyer (True Blood) as Capt. von Trapp.
The special faced its challenges as it was inspired by the stage adaptation and not the musical film from 1965. But the live event went off without a hitch! Though critics were (believe it or not) extremely critical of Underwood's acting, her amazing voice seemed to have made up for where people feared she lacked. After all, Underwood was personally endorsed by Julie Andrews, who starred in the film version.
Underwood wowed the crowd with her beautiful renditions of the classics like "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi," "The Lonely Goatherd," "Something Good," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "The Sound of Music."
The television production received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and attracted 44 million viewers at its debut. At the time of its release in 2013, it became another notch in Carrie Underwood's belt: winner of American Idol, the winner of six Grammy's, collector of more than 95 major honors, sold more than 64 million records worldwide, and recorded 18 No. 1 singles. I'm convinced there's nothing Underwood can't do!
The Cast:
- Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp
- Stephen Moyer as Captain Georg von Trapp
- Laura Benanti as Elsa Schräder / Fräulein Schweiger
- Christian Borle as Max Detweiler
- Audra McDonald as Mother Abbess
- Ariane Rinehart as Liesl von Trapp
- Michael Campayno as Rolf
- Sophia Anne Caruso as Brigitta von Trapp
- Peyton Ella as Gretl von Trapp
- Michael Nigro as Friedrich von Trapp
- Grace Rundhaug as Marta von Trapp
- Ella Watts-Gorman as Louisa von Trapp
- Joe West as Kurt von Trapp
- Christiane Noll as Sister Margaretta
- Elena Shaddow as Sister Sophia
- Kristine Nielsen as Frau Schmidt
- C.J. Wilson as Herr Zeller
- Sean Cullen as Franz
- John Bolger as Admiral von Scheiber
- Michael Park as Baron Elberfeld
