Watched it last night with my family on NBC.

For what they were trying to accomplish, I thought they did a good job with the show. Perhaps NBC or other networks will pick up on the idea of broadcasting musicals again, and the art will only only become more popular.

Carrie Underwood's acting was generally atrocious, but her singing more than made up for it. I thought her performance got better as the show progressed, once she got some confidence in herself. And I thought the chemistry between her and the kids was good. It looked like they had a great time performing together.

All of the other actors were good, IMO. Not great, but good enough. I thought Captain von Trapp was the best actor, but the worst singer. Still, he could carry a simple melody when he needed to.

The scenery looked wonderful, but I thought it was kind of silly how the Abbey and the stage were all connected to the house. Then again, it worked well for the amount of time they had to change sets.

Was it just me, or did the orchestra overshadow the singers at some points? That kind of detracted from the experience. But hey, I still applaud them for really doing the show live.

I really connected with this because it reminded me of when I used to perform in the musicals at my high school. Great times. I hope we start to see a trend in musicals.

I could only make it for 20 minutes before turning it off . Her acting was at 9th grade level. I actually saw the original production with Mary Martin when I was a kid. My grandmother saw it on broadway over 30 times.

I didn't watch it but found it interesting to hear it compared by more than one person to the original Dark Shadows.

While I agree that the performance was less than stellar, in Ms. Underwood's defense, asking a singer to act is akin to asking an actor to sing.
Michael, now that you mention it, it did seem similar to Dark Shadows!

"While I agree that the performance was less than stellar, in Ms. Underwood's defense, asking a singer to act is akin to asking an actor to sing."

? Broadway actors do it every day. and they dance as well.

That's called being multi-talented.

By default, all broadway actors are multitalented. Otherwise they move to LA.

I thoroughly enjoyed Audra McDonald's rendition of Climb Every Mountain.

My thoughts:

https://www.facebook.com/satellite23/posts/184339038438518

By most accounts, the critics hated it!

I would think anybody who has seen and appreciated real Broadway shows would have hated it! (That said, the rest of the cast was pretty good ... but Underwood's lame acting and irritating vocals caused me to change channels and watch "Fast & Loud" instead).

I LOVED that they did this.

However, Ms. Underwood is not an actor, so I question their choice. Beyonce, who can act and has the "X " factor, would have been a FANTASTIC choice.

Ms. Underwood's lack of acting skills was a true distraction.

I seriously hope that was a joke.

But it would be interesting see Beyonce portraying a family member of the Austrian Trapp family during the rise of Hitler. Talk about casting against type.

(Kind of reminds me of when Ossie Davis portrayed JFK in Bubba Ho Tep.)

I didn't mean it as a joke. Ms. knowles has acted in film and of course can sing. Why would you think she'd not be a better choice than Ms. Underwood?

Underwood wasn't "bad", she is just not top quality as an actress at this time.

Interestingly enough, her best moments in her acting came when she was singing (surprise!). The ensemble was very good, though didn't care for the guy playing Rolf (I've got high standards here - I played Rolf when I really was 17 going on 18, )

Didn't care for Capt. Von Trapp's performance. He seems a good performer, but didn't act with great distinction, and sang with even less distinction.

Julie Andrews is greatness, bit CU did her own justice to the music, singing it very well.

Someone earlier posted that her characterization got better as the show went on. I agree. I've seen touring Broadway shows with lesser performers.