{"id":4953,"date":"2013-12-15T13:48:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T18:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=4953"},"modified":"2013-12-15T16:43:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T21:43:32","slug":"yodel-ay-hee-hooey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=4953","title":{"rendered":"Yodel-ay-Hee . . . Hooey!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Audra<\/a>

Audra McDonald and Carrie Underwood as God’s Creatures, Great and Small (respectively).<\/strong><\/p><\/div>
\nI recorded “The Sound of Music Live!” last night while I was at the theatre. A few quick thoughts. <\/p>\n

Before:<\/strong> Why is everyone saying such mean things about Carrie Underwood? How bad can she be?
\nAfter:<\/strong> Oh, I see . . . Never mind. <\/p>\n

Unhappily, Carrie Underwood is fully as bad as the critics said. But I think the much-repeated criticism that she’s like an automaton, that she’s not emotionally connected, is unjust. What’s wrong with her performance comes not from any lack of earnestness, but a total lack of technique. It seems clear to me that she means every word she says, but she has neither the imagination nor the chops to make her emotional life interesting. Carrie acts the way she sings: she doesn’t make music; she hits notes, emits tones. She’s earnest and committed, but there’s no fire or excitement in her; her most brilliant smile is utterly humorless. The dainty tears that dance on her cheeks while Audra McDonald sings are the most affecting thing in her entire performance, and they’re a perfect example of the sort of bad acting choices she makes from her very first scene “till (as my grandmother used to say) the last dog dies.” The song isn’t intended to move Maria in the same way it’s supposed to move us: it’s there to give her the confidence she needs to face the world — the actress should let us see Maria’s new-found resolve take hold of her as the words begin to have their effect: snivelling is the last<\/em> thing she should be doing. “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” jerks our <\/em>tears (maybe), but it dries<\/em> hers. Carrie’s tears are genuine and I think it’s because Audra’s performance simply overwhelms her, astonishes her to the deepest recesses of her shallowness; she receives the song as a wonder-stricken audience, not as Maria. She can’t help it. No experience and no technique. <\/p>\n