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"How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "[t]hat is the question that only you can answer!" As long as you live in Canada, that is. Next year, the Andrew Lloyd Webber/David Ian production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music will make its North American debut in Toronto. And the role of Maria von Trapp will be cast the same way the West End version's was: via a reality show titled How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
I have mixed feelings about this. Mostly, I find it horrifying to watch the American Idol-ification of musical theater. But as critical and dismissive as I'm inclined to be, I cannot ignore the fact that the West End production has been not only a commercial success, but a critical success as well. The format of the BBC show was somewhat similar to the format of American Idol. The producers held open auditions and selected approximately 50 aspiring Marias to attend "Maria School." Eventually this group was winnowed down to 10 aspiring Marias who were given catchy nicknames such as "Sexy Maria," "Tomboy Maria" and "Romanian Maria."
One Maria was eliminated each week until voters eventually chose "Telesales/Intense Maria," Connie Fisher.
David Ian brought an American version of the show to NBC last summer: Grease: You're the One That I Want.
It was horrible and wrong, and I watched almost every episode of it. Grease opened on Broadway last month to lackluster reviews — many of the titles of which were some variation of the obvious "Grease, You're Not the One That I Want." But the show is still filling almost 90 percent of the seats nightly, at a time when many Broadway shows are filling only 60 or 70 percent of their seats. In addition to the commercial reasons for this type of casting gimmick, there may actually be artistic reasons. Well, perhaps not artistic, exactly, but something. Although Mary Martin originated the role of Maria von Trapp onstage, Julie Andrews, star of the 1965 film version, utterly and completely owns it.
The Sound of Music is one of the most popular movies of all time. (Watch a clip of "Do Re Mi " here.) Consequently, casting Maria may actually be a problem that must be solved; it's quite a challenge to drum up interest in anyone else playing the lead. (That partly explains why I had little interest in seeing the 1998 Broadway revival of The Sound of Music, despite the fact that Rebecca Luker is a talented Broadway performer.) While I suspect there are better ways than reality TV to solve that particular problem, I cannot argue that the chosen method does not work. Of course, none of this addresses the corollary issue: why does Andrew Lloyd Webber — master of bombast — have anything to do with The Sound of Music? But that is a question for another day. So, Canadians, do you plan to watch? And has anyone seen either of the reality show musicals? What did you think? Submitted by on September 28, 2007 - 10:16am. |
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how do you hold a moonbeam in your hand
Oh i ADORE the sound of music and when the show came on in t he UK i was totally skeptical. But it did win me over and Connie was my favourite. I was very pleased she won. :) She makes a fabulous Maria. I went to london in the summer to see the show. She was pitch perfect and its almost possible to forget that the role o MAria belongs to Julie Andrews (i said almost!)
And i met her. And she was lovely. And i was utterly starstruck and was barely able to speak. I think i actually squealed when she came out the stage door. I was in a crowd of tiny children and I was the one that squealed!!!
~I've been watching your world from afar, I've been trying to be where you are, I've been secretly falling apart...~
Thank YOU
I want to take this opportunity to thank you SO for bringing musical theatre to afterellen.com. As much as I love the features on pop culture and the media, musical theatre is my passion and reading about it from the afterellen perspective is icing on the cake.
I agree with you, Rebecca Luker is brilliant (ironically, she's in the Broadway production of Mary Poppins at the moment, playing the Banks mother); and still, the shadow of the one and only Julie Andrews is cast over every role she ever played- even in the stage version of Thoroughly Modern Millie with the talented Sutton Foster.
The Sound of Music is one of my favourite musicals of all times, and I'm sure the number of people who'd tell you the same is... well, huge. No wonder the TV show was a success in the Uk, and hopefully in Cananda as well. And for us in the US, that's what YouTube is for ;)
What does ALW have to do with anything? Commercial success. Seriously, I don't know how he does it... As long as he doesn't bring his own music into tSoM, I won't mind ;)
CBC!
big up to the CBC! for those of you who don't know that's the public broadcasting corporation that we have here in canada (think PBS, only much larger). sorry i'm a dork but i'm a journalist who was trained in CBC style...and i never thought i'd see its name on afterellen!
even public broadcasters make unusual or potentially bad programming decisions...and i'm really not sure about this one. it wouldn't be the first time, haha.
i wanted to say that not only am i continually impressed with your coverage of lesbian issues, entertainment, events and news - but i love that you all cover things on an international scale.
keep up the great work!
~Renee...proud Canadian gal
why so popular?
I have no idea how that will turn out, but I think that with a reality show you might find more people interested in the casting - or, worst case scenario, the really good actresses not wanting to take part in reality tv and therefore the overall choice might be larger or limited.
what I am always astonished about is that especially americans are crazy about the sound of music! most austrians don't even know the movie and have never seen it. I'm austrian and the only reason that I saw the movie was that we had an american music teacher who showed it to us. I find it fascinating that while this story plays in austria, austrians aren't interested in it. what I just wanted to note: a lot of the things in the movie are complete nonsense, we don't eat schnitzel with nudles, but with potatos and most austrians wear what americans wear too - which is often a surprise to americans visiting austria ;)
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." ~ Jodie Foster
I watched the show, I
I watched the show, I thought it was ace (then again, I am a musical freak, hmm). My favourite the whole way through was Siobhan (i think she was Fashion Student Maria or the Lucky Maria, because she only got in after someone else dropped out). If youtube decides to load, her audition is here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BgyB7PLAEBw and if you can find it, try and see her sing 'Chains' or 'Songbird'.
Also had soft spots for Tomboy Maria (Abi Finlay, who I saw a couple of months ago in Fame) and Aoife (probably Irish Maria).
Haven't enjoyed any of the other shows like this one, probably because I'm such a huge fan of Maria and not so much about Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat, where at one point in the show, they would be singing half-naked. Then again, not entirely keen on half-naked Marias either. Hmm.