01 Feb The Sound of Music
(1959, 1965, and 2013) One of the most beloved musicals of all time takes place during World War II Austria … a nun-in-training is sent to a family of seven children to be their governess. The story is based on the 1959 memoirs of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.
The Rogers & Hammerstein stage production of The Sound of Music starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel opened on Broadway in November of 1959. My Aunt Dorothy took an awestruck me to see it in the early 1960’s. (It’s last performance was 1963.) My first trip to New York City and my first Broadway play!
Then in 1965, the film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer was released. Mary Martin wasn’t considered for the part … she was somewhere around 50 years old at the time. Julie Andrews was magnificent. but even so, initial movie reviews weren’t overwhelmingly positive. Bosley Crowther, my favorite WWII era critic from the New York Times, talked about the film’s “romantic nonsense and sentiment.” Another wrote “sickly goody-goody songs.” Ha! The Sound of Music won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Editing, and Best Score. It has become the most popular movie musical ever.
This brings us to the 2013’s The Sound of Music Live starring Carrie Underwood. Thank goodness I watched it before I read the reviews. Because it was live it was very much like a stage production. No, Carrie Underwood isn’t Mary Martin, and she isn’t Julie Andrews. So what? It was as though everyone who wrote about her performance couldn’t wait to pan it. I loved it.
The music brought back so many wonderful memories, and “in my humble opinion” Carrie and the rest of the cast sang and performed well. And it was LIVE!
The Sound of Music (Three-Disc 45th Anniversary Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) at amazon.com
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