NBC is redoing the classic musical The Sound of Music in a live broadcast, casting Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp.
To shepherd the live three-hour event, which will air during next year's holiday season, NBC is re-teaming with Smash producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Chicago, Hairspray), who have also been tapped to produce the 85th annual Academy Awards in February.
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“Speaking for everyone at NBC, we couldn't be happier to have the gifted Carrie Underwood take up the mantle of the great Maria von Trapp,” said NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt. “She was an iconic woman who will now be played by an iconic artist.”
Based on the original Broadway musical that was inspired by the true story of von Trapp, The Sound of Music follows the aspiring nun who leaves the abbey to become a governess for the widower Captain von Trapp's seven children and finds herself falling in love with her boss and questioning her religious calling.
The Broadway production debuted in 1959, winning the Tony Award for best musical. A 1965 film adaptation, starring Julie Andrews as Maria, won the Oscar for best picture.
Underwood has shown off her acting chops in a handful of roles: the 2011 feature Soul Surfer and a guest spot as a flight attendant in a 2010 episode of CBS' How I Met Your Mother.
What do you think about Underwood's casting?
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