A Noviça Rebelde ao Vivo

I've loved "The Sound of Music" since I saw the movie when I was nine. Since then, I've seen several stage productions (both good and bad) along with seeing the movie countless times. With NBC's Live version in 2013, I was excited to see the story brought to life again but was left ultimately disappointed and wanting to forget it.

Then, I discovered that ITV had produced their own version and after seeing some clips online, I wanted to see more. In short, this is a wonderful production. The sets are so detailed (especially Maria's mountain and the family's garden) and unlike the NBC version, I never felt like I was watching actors in a studio. Kara Tointon is wonderful as Maria and was just a joy to watch. All of the kids were great too.

Granted, it's not an entirely perfect production (they only had one time to perform this after all), I didn't really care for the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" scene, the dancing was boring and I thought Rolf was just an okay singer. There are some awkward camera angles and a moment where the camera stays on a Nazi officer who demands that the family sing before abruptly cutting to the festival. But these are all just minor things and didn't take away from my enjoyment of a new production of a familiar story. I loved it so much that I bought the DVD!

To compare the ITV British SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE! production to the beloved (but still flawed) 1965 film is utter nonsense. It's like comparing apples and oranges, because they are two different media. Resources were available for the film that the stage production couldn't hope to utilize. More to the point, how does it compare to the NBC-TV 2013 Live production that starred Carrie Underwood?

The answer is that it's miles better! The production is excellent, and while I disagree with a few things (such as replacing "An Ordinary Couple" with "Something Good" and abridging a couple of the songs; hence the two stars off a ten-star rating), watching it was generally time very well spent. The cast was youthful and appealing, and - more to the point - everyone could actually act! The sugary sweetness of the show was, by-and-large, swept away.

The music was well-paced, and although I missed the original orchestrations, the ones used did no harm and didn't sound out of place. I have to admit that I hated the American version when it aired. Most fatally, Carrie Underwood, simply couldn't act, and the scenes dragged. No such problem here. I missed this when it was first broadcast by PBS in 2018, so I'm very happy that I happened to catch it last night.

An enthusiastic thumbs-up!.

Like many other reviewers, I had seen the American live telecast that had come out around the same time first, and thought this one to be far better in many ways.

I wasn't sure what to expect but as a recent fan of Julian Ovenden and a lifelong fan of the Sound of Music, I wanted to give this a try regardless of my wariness about the format. It was indeed a pleasant surprise; the performances both in acting and what I assumed was live singing, were excellent across the board and there were also quite a few moments that really captured the magic of the original movie and stage show. My favorite moment has always been when the Captain joins in singing the Sound of Music with the children and they executed that scene here brilliantly. Even the cinematography is something to take note of in this production, for despite very limited sets, they managed to make the most of them and bring out some rather visually engaging shots.

Admittedly, if you're averse to remakes or have too fond of memories about the original, this will not be the TV movie for you. I think that besides the obvious and more warranted comparison to its contemporary, the American live movie from circa 2015, a fan should give this one a fair shot as its own production and allow the performances to speak for themselves.

To be fair as well, the pacing is probably the weakest point with some scenes and scene changes feeling awkward by at times either stalling or moving almost too quickly making the experience jarring. All in all, it probably makes for a great soundtrack if it exists and bonus: Leisl actually looks 16.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC - LIVE! is a comparative rarity on television these days - a revival recorded in an East London studio but broadcast as live, as if performed in a theater. It recalled those halcyon days in the Seventies and Eighties when both ITV and the BBC videotaped productions originally designed for the West End, Stratford-on-Avon and the Chichester Festival Theatre.

Coky Giedroyc and Richard Valentine's production was a straightforward one, emphasizing the choreography but using the camera to tell the story, as if it were an actor on the stage. Hence this was not a "flat" filming, with the camera confined by the proscenium, but a three-dimensional filming, making use of plenty of close-ups and panning shots. It used televisual techniques to emphasize the emotion of the piece on several occasions.

Although well-known to most viewers, both in its stage and film versions, THE SOUND OF MUSIC still has the capacity to stir the emotions. This is chiefly due to a strong book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, which does not shy away from the sinister political overtones of the story. The songs might be saccharine in places, but the plot certainly isn't.

Giedroyc and Valentine's production brought out the gradual change of character wrought in Captain Georg von Trapp (Julian Ovenden), as he discovered the effect that Maria had on his children. His pliability contrasted with Maria (Kara Tointon), a strong-willed personality who knew that what she was doing was right, even if Von Trapp disagreed with it. Set against this couple was the oleaginous Max (Alexander Armstrong) a slimy character if ever there was one, who willingly accepted the dictates of Nazism without understanding their basically evil purposes.

The singing was, on the whole, extremely good, while the orchestrations (by Michael England) were both lush yet melodic. Critics described THE SOUND OF MUSIC - LIVE! as an example of "event" television, designed to lure jaded viewers away from online service providers and back to terrestrial channels. If this was the purpose, then I can only say that it was admirably fulfilled. I sincerely hope that ITV repeats the experiment.

This production went out live on a giant stage in London. It was not simply great, it was magnificent. Incredible production values and a wonderful cast. It follows the original stage show (almost) which means that the two deleted numbers from the film version are restored but "something good" written for the film is added. The original sequence of songs and orchestrations are there as well.

I will not single out any of the cast as this would be unfair, they all perform to perfection and never once do you yearn for Julie Andrews or Christopher Plummer. There are no silly English accents with a German/Austrian twang.

The kids are good too, again I single out no one.

I think that an audience might have helped but this would not be possible, technically given the size of the sets. And if you want to see how it was done, there is a documentary "The making of ....".

I presume that this will be available on DVD if you didn't record it live. Go out and buy it - and play it over and over again. Well done ITV.