Carrie Underwood, "The Sound of Music"

Now, if I'm not mistaken, shouldn't Maria be in something slightly more befitting a novice when she's spinning around the alive hills? No puffed sleeves here, y'all. Also, she looks like she just spun around six times after sniffing glue and is desperately hoping she will focus her eyes, but also might be convinced she's talking to actual God and that he told her to eat someone's liver in His name.

Carrie Underwood

"Dear Lord: Thank you for not letting Mother Superior find this pair of shoes."

I'm sure it's hard to do this sort of shoot, but they make her look awfully twee. And VERY much like a milkmaid. And also kind of vacant. The ads show her trying really hard to Broadway up her voice, and out of context it's kind of irritating, but the thing is... however you feel about Carrie Underwood, the woman DOES have a good voice. i'd be surprised if she didn't do the songs some justice; the question is whether it's going to come off too shticky -- like, playing the role of Maria, versus playing the role of a Broadway singer playing the role of Maria.

Carrie Underwood, Stephen Moyer

This shot has all the chemistry of an episode of a show called We're Not Doing Any Chemistry Today.

Carrie Underwood

That dress is a little better. And her shoes are still awfully good. But would a novice nun have that much hair kicking around, also? I read that Carrie Underwood did tell producers they could cut her hair, but they wanted the braids. Which is crazy to me. Maria Von Trapp doesn't spend all morning winding a braid around her head. She has way too much curtain-redesigning to do.

The Von Trapps

Aw, but they look great. And Laura Benanti will make a great Baroness, and Christian Borle as Max and Audra McDonald as the Mother Superior are very appealing to me indeed. THAT is some casting. I can't wait to her Audra on "Climb Every Mountain," because the movie version really hurts my senses (sorry, Peggy; I love the rest of your part). Okay, y'all, 8 p.m. eastern is when we get to catch this cloud and pin it down (although it's also 8 p.m. on the West Coast because BOO, NBC. I HAVE A MOONBEAM TO TRY AND HOLD IN MY HAND.

Fug the Promo Materials: "The Sound of Music" Live on NBC

IT IS UPON US: Tonight, NBC is airing a three-hour live Sound of Music extravapalooza starring Carrie Underwood and Stephen "True Blood" Moyer (or as I'm calling him, Compton Von Trapp). It's based on the Broadway musical and not the movie, which means the songs and who sing them change a little. This skews my expertise because I've never seen the stage show, due to being so enamored of the film and Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and Charmian Carr and Eleanor Parker's fascinating drawn-on eyebrows and Marni "Eliza Doolittle's Voice" Nixon and (I almost wrote Marti Noxon, although if she had been in it I'm sure I'd have loved her too) and Lila Quartermaine and Future Mrs. Robert Urich and Friedrich's teeth and KURT THAT'S THE ONE I FORGOT GOD BLESS KURT and even crazy somewhat-hard-to-listen-to Peggy Wood. While we wait to see how this version stacks up -- we will be tweeting throughout the West Coast airing at @fuggirls; what's the over/under on how far into this thing we're thrown into Twitter jail? -- let's dish the promotional/rehearsal stills. And no, we are not being paid to discuss the poster; longtime readers of the site, or even possibly short-time readers of the site, should not be surprised that Jessica and I have been looking forward to this with equal parts glee and dread. It likely won't have anything as glorious as Plummer's near-homicidal delivery of "THERE ISN'T GOING TO BE ANY BARONESS... ANYMORE" and Friedrich's teeth screaming "FRAULEIN MARIA'S COME BACK FROM THE ABBEY" about ten seconds too late. But it has Audra McDonald, so... I'm listening.