In Hank Stuever’s Washington Post review of “The sound of
Music Live”, Stuever states that the live presentation was “an ambitious, yet
disappointing stiff staging of the original musical” giving it a bad review.
He
argues three different reasons why he feels like this live presentation of “The
Sound of Music” was the worst disaster he had seen on TV since “Nik Wallenda
prayed with Joel Osteen and then tight roped across a Grand Canyon gorge”.
First he talks about the lighting choices. In his review, Stuever referred to
the lighting as strange and states that the lighting “was reminiscent of old
soap operas that turned everything either a shade of scented candle or backyard
compost”. Secondly, he argued that the true essence of the movie was not
captured which for nearly everyone means the vivid and endlessly ebullient 1965
Robert Wise film, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Lastly, he
mocked the acting of Carrie Underwood who played Maria the governess and said
of her “it’s impossible not to notice that she can’t act. When Underwood spoke
her lines, she was as flat as the label on a Swiss Miss package of cocoa”, and also
mocked Stephen Moyer in the role of Captain von Trapp who struggled with a
format that is all but alien to today’s TV.
However,
I do not think the review is a fair one especially when comparing it to the
1965 film, which if reviewed at today’s standards may have negative critic also
and two, it is harder to stage a live show than act a film. Although one might
say a classic movie like “The sound of Music” should not have been emulated if
it wasn’t going to be done right, I believe that the producers ventured because
of their love for the movie and I believed it showed throughout the production.
The
lighting that Stuever seemed to dislike was setting the mood of the production
for it captured the era of the movie. The “shade of scented candle lighting” as
Stuever puts it was deliberate to emphasize the time period and it allows the
audience to travel back and appreciate the thought process put into the
production. The essence of the movie that Stuever so lightly thought was not captured
was very well brilliantly captured through the songs which were nicely done and
which I’m sure the audience sang along to. The acting of Carrie Underwood and
Stephen Moyer may not have been phenomenal, but were good enough to enjoy a
live show which is not very easy to do. They portrayed characters that have
been a favorite of most American families and would have been a tough act to
follow even if portrayed by great actors like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
I think
Stuever should have given the production better credit for their effort of
creating America’s favorite pass time movie as a live production.
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