Let me start by making one thing clear: long before it was ever trending on Twitter, my family was performing Sound of Music Live.
It was inevitable, really. My father is one of seven children and when they weren't being schooled by nuns, they were worshiping at the altar of Rodgers and Hammerstein, with the Von Trapp family front and center.
Two generations later, the family following is just as fervent. No joke, my sister Carly walked down the aisle to Maria's wedding march. At family gatherings, we have literally broken floorboards jumping around to "Do Re Mi," and have come darn close to breaking windows hitting the final note of "Climb Every Mountain." We twirl on every hill, dance in every gazebo and have never met a cloth napkin that did not make a fine makeshift habit.
So all that to say, the news of NBC's Sound of Music Live with Carrie Underwood was a big, bleeping deal for my family -- welcome to some, heresy to others. So when Thursday night finally rolled around, one faction took part in a principled boycott, while the rest of us tuned in at 8/7 central to judge, once and for all, whether this modern-day Maria was, to use the words of the nuns, a headache, an angel or just a girl trying to fill impossibly big shoes.
Of course, the first surprise for some family members, as well as many other viewers, was the fact that the stage version on which the broadcast was based is meaningfully different from the movie. When I had to read through the play in seventh-grade music class, it also shocked and bothered me that Sound of Music dared to exist prior to the film I knew and loved. (All the more bothersome was learning that the, ahem, "real" Von Trapps up in Vermont had criticized historical inaccuracies in the musical -- what the hell did they know anyway?)
But determined to be open to this new take on an old favorite -- after all, "the wool of the black sheep is just as warm" -- I hunkered down with a homemade habit (not kidding), a bottle of Grüner Veltliner and an unlimited texting plan to exchange notes with my family.
Without further adieu -- to yeu and yeu and yeu (sorry, couldn't help it) -- here is the list:
13 of My Favorite (and Least Favorite) Things About Sound of Music Live
- I'm glad Carrie didn't try to be Julie Andrews; she had to make the role her own. I only wish she hadn't instead chosen to channel a wooden marionette as an actress (or Doris Day for her Act 2 coiffure). But as a singer, I have to hand it to her: the fräulein can yodel.
Grumbles aside, I have to admit that I had a grand, old time watching this ambitious feat unfold (naturally over a dinner of tofu schnitzel and a cauliflower creation that I convinced myself was a representation of edelweiss). And I also applaud NBC and the whole cast and crew for breathing new life into a classic that many, including some of my kin, consider sacrosanct. After all, I realize it's not everyone who gets to see Sound of Music performed live at every family gathering.