Live Production of The Sound of Music to Air on NBC

Soon NBC will be alive with The Sound of Music, and it won't just be an annual airing of the beloved 1965 film. The peacock network has announced plans to air a live broadcast of a new production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic. Smash producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will produce the television event, which will feature actors singing live. Casting is expected to begin right away. The air date has not been determined yet. Zadan and Meron have a history of bringing favorite musicals to television, having produced TV movies of Annie, Gypsy, The Music Man, and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. But, unlike those movies, The Sound of Music will be a live broadcast.

Of course NBC is not new to live broadcasting, with shows like Saturday Night Live and even 30 Rock doing the occasional live show. Back in the 1950s, broadcasting musicals live was done frequently on network television, and NBC hopes to bring back that spirit of spontaneity. Fans of the film The Sound of Music, which stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, may be surprised to discover that there are several notable differences between the movie and the original Broadway stage version, which is likely the version that NBC will be producing. The stage musical features the songs "How Can Love Survive" and "No Way to Stop It," but does not include Maria's song "I Have Confidence," which was written specifically for the movie. In place of the film's duet "Something Good," the stage show has a song called "An Ordinary Couple". Some of the other well-known movie songs are shifted to different scenes in the stage show.