Bethpage, Long Island, seems like the last place anyone would pick to stage a live production of “The Sound of Music.” Even the locals seem confused. When I take a taxi from the Long Island Railroad station to the studio, my cab driver, a raspy-voiced guy listening to Steely Dan on the radio, asks, “Any famous actors in it?”
Well, I say, there’s Carrie Underwood.
He nods and asks a second question. “And who’s gonna play the Lion?”
If the cabbie is thinking of a certain movie starring Judy Garland when he thinks of “The Sound of Music,” the rest of the country thinks of one person: Julie Andrews. The production under way on Stage 5 at the Grumman Studios (an offshoot of the aerospace company Northrop Grumman) is not a remake of the immortal 1965 film, but a revival of the original Broadway play that starred Mary Martin. Its biggest risk — and to the producers, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (“Smash”), its biggest selling point, is the star — Carrie Underwood.
The country-music superstar is playing Maria von Trapp. While purists may see her casting as musical-theater sacrilege, Meron explains why Underwood is a natural choice. “We think she is Maria,” he says. “She has all of those qualities. Eagerness and innocence that’s about to take the next step. Also, she’s very faith-based and we didn’t think singing live would daunt her.”
Yes, but a Rodgers and Hammerstein score is a long, long way from country music. Meron provides further proof: He found a clip on YouTube of Underwood singing “Suddenly Seymour” from “Little Shop of Horrors.” “She has the most beautiful Broadway belt,” he says. “There is no sense of twang. She’s a multidimensional artist.”
Finally, Meron admits her CD sales — some 45 million — had something to do with it. “She’s a big star. You want a big star,” he says. “You want people to watch.”
Knowing she would have to play catch-up with the seasoned cast, Meron and Zadan brought Underwood to New York early from her home in Nashville to work with director Rob Ashford and musical director David Chase. She showed up with every note and line of dialogue memorized.
Underwood, for her part, is well aware that she has “the furthest to go “of anyone in the cast. But don’t underestimate her confidence: She can get the singing done. “I do 90-plus minutes of my own show, which is one crazy-hard song after another,” she says. “I’ve sung with everyone from Tony Bennett to Steven Tyler. This is one thing I’ve never attempted.”
Even without Underwood, there are plenty of reasons to watch “The Sound of Music,” and some are on display in a scene in the abbey, one of six sets that dominate the soundstage. While a stage manager calls, “C’mon, you Nazis” to get the guys playing the villains into position for the von Trapp escape scene, a group of women playing the nuns, led by Tony-winning powerhouse Audra McDonald, also gathers to softly sing “Climb Every Mountain” as they escort Underwood, Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”), who is playing Captain von Trapp, and their kids out of Austria. Even without mikes or costumes, the effect is angelic.
The cast moves swiftly from one set to another as they get into the rhythm of going live in front of 10 cameras on December 5. A scene where Captain von Trapp introduces Maria to his children, who all obey whistle calls, shows a stern Moyer coming up against a soft-spoken Underwood, who has her own way of doing things. When the Captain clears out, Maria teaches the children their first song, “Do-Re-Mi,” and Underwood’s charms surface.
Her connection to the children is especially vivid when they sing “The Lonely Goatherd.” Growing up listening to Kitty Wells and the Carter Family, Underwood knew how to yodel long before “The Sound of Music” and her enthusiasm is infectious, her country growl clear on the higher notes.
Meron says that Underwood hits the “sweet spot of the country,” and there’s something to that. During the pivotal scene where Maria confesses to Mother Abbess (McDonald) her conflict between the convent and Captain von Trapp, it feels so real to McDonald that the singer’s voice breaks on the last note of “Climb Every Mountain,” which she sings so effortlessly it gives you chills, her voice ascending the notes with heavenly grace.
Afterward, McDonald comes offstage she grabs my arm, saying she missed the note at the end because of Underwood. “She’s so emotional, I lost it,” she says.
Moyer is the other surprising casting choice. The “True Blood” star confesses that he hadn’t been onstage for 18 years and was about to play Billy Flynn in a production of “Chicago” when the “Sound of Music” offer came. He talks about his days of doing “Oliver” in London after graduating from drama school. With his HBO series about to start its last season, Moyer is looking for a career beyond “True Blood” and admired Zadan and Meron’s ambition.
“I was surprised at the audacity of what they were trying to do,” he says.
Amid all the bustle on set, there is one, key thing missing: the orchestra. On December 5, the cast will sing to an orchestral track for the upcoming “Sound of Music” CD, which was completed before these intense rehearsals. Chase sits in the wings, giving musical cues from his laptop, where all the tracks are listed. The score is actually a match of two scores — the original by Robert Russell Bennett and the film version by Irwin Kostal — and is played by an orchestra made up mostly from the Broadway production of “Cinderella.”
As the timeless, gorgeous score fills the soundstage, Chase reminds us that the show is about something more universal than the von Trapps’ triumph over the Nazis. “It’s about the power of music to change people’s lives,” he says. “It’s how Maria connects to the children, how the Captain rediscovers his life. We’ve heard the phrase so much that we forget what it means. Music connects us emotionally in ways words cannot.”