The Hills are Alive, with the Sound of Live TV!

Source: The Sound of Music Live (2015) (imdb.com)

I said that Oliver! is probably the last show I will see, but there was a special thing on the TV that I could not ignore. I have managed to catch up with ITV's The Sound of Music Live! this afternoon, which was watched by over 4m people last night, and I couldn't resist making a short piece on my thoughts on that.

Making it's debut in the UK, the trend for Live TV musicals began in the States in 2013, with their own version of The Sound of Music Live! on NBC, followed by Peter Pan Live! (which I have to admit, didn't really love, sorry) and The Wiz Live! (which I have yet to see). It seems like Fox has also caught on the trend as they will be airing Grease Live! in January, starring the GORGEOUS Aaron Tveit as Danny!!!

Anyway, onto The Sound of Music Live!, Kara Tointon was picked to play the iconic role of Maria, her first musical role to be truthful. It was obviously surprised that she could sing - and she can, she has a much better voice than I expected, and she did well of making Maria her own - which is not an easy task when following Julie Andrew's footsteps!
On to the Captain Von Trapp, played by Downton Abbey's Julian Ovenden - I LOVED him! When he announced the cast, I knew he would make an incredible Captain as I had heard him sing before on the Proms - and his voice is incredible.

Other highlights for me I thought were the wonderful rich baritone of Alexander Armstrong as Max, young Evelyn Hoskins as Lisel, and even the odd choice of Bake Off's Mel Giedroyc as housekeeper Frau Schmidt.

Though there is no comparison to the classic 1965 film, it was a nice fresh take on the piece, and was perfect to watch with a bit of food. The Sound of Music has definitely has become a family guilty pleasure, and why not add Tointon and co to it's family - it deserved it =)

To watch the show, please click the following link: http://www.itv.com/hub/the-sound-of-music-live/2a3393a0001
PS: if you have ad-block, you might need to turn it off so you can watch it...