A Noviça Rebelde ao Vivo

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.

The book and score are closer to the original R&H version. "I Have Confidence" is missing but the movie song "Something Good" is added. Two minor original songs added and I can see why they were edited out of the movie. They point out how "shallow" the rich Capt. and Countess really were. Very well produced and directed UK "stage" version which was telecast there live in 2015. I do not (personally) like the 2 jarring real newsreel clips, but they are quite short and certainly get the point across that the real thing was no "romp in the park." British accents of course but that can't be helped. Great acting and singing performances from a cast that is (probably) unknown here in "The States". A few slightly off-key notes are expected in a truly live performance but this doesn't spoil a thing. Maria is "cast" a bit older than I expected. It's all 100% first-rate. 10 stars and 2 hankies. Shown on PBS' Great Performances series in November 2018. To those user reviewers that complain at the differences between between this and the popular movie, I suspect that they have not seen (many) live or taped performances of plays or musicals on stage. There is a huge difference between the two as a stage version can have only a few major set changes, and backdrops are usually painted but today may be digital.

Real facts: In truth, they traveled to the border at the end of their property and escaped by train to Italy. Therefore, they did not hike over the Swiss Alps. All the real children's names are different. "Edelweiss" is not an Austrian folk song! The real story only vaguely resembles this story and there are far too many differences to explain here. The "timeline" is totally different. There are several Internet articles that cover this subject. Also, look for "My Story" by Maria Von Trapp, published in 1949, for the true story.

As a revival of the stage musical, it is not so bad. I like this Maria, young and spirited. Yes, a little tense, as mentioned in the other review, but still in a cute way.

Julian Overden as the captain is a surprise for me. He sings so much better than the captain in the movie. But of course his acting is no match to Christopher Plummer who is a more convincing decorated sea captain of authority. Julian still looks like Charles Blake in Downton Abbey.

What amuses me so much than the rest is one song not included in the movie, How does love survive. The tune is catchy, the lyrics is hilarious, but not in accordance with the rest of songs. No wonder they took it out in the movie.

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!.

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.