Julie Andrews Didn't See Carrie Underwood's The Sound Of Music, Will "Get Around" to Watching NBC Version

The surprising hit Julie Andrews hasn't seen.

By Chris Harnick Dec 11, 2013 12:49 AMTags
Carrie UnderwoodWill Hart/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The halls of Julie Andrews' house were not alive with the sound of music last Thursday night.

In a surprising twist, the Oscar winner was not one of the 18 million viewers who watched the live production of NBC's The Sound Of Music led by Carrie Underwood. "Alas, I did not [see it]. I had a speaking engagement and I couldn't," Andrews said according to USA Today. "But my kids did record it. I'll get around to it."

While Andrews may not have seen the production yet, the original Sound of Music star did have kind words to say about Underwood being cast in the role.

We recently chatted with Underwood prior to the big performance and the country starlet revealed that Andrews has been nothing but supportive.

"She's so wonderful." Underwood gushed. "She's been so great to us, and that means a lot. Whenever I do a cover of somebody's song or whatever, I always get permission of the artist first. I'm like, 'If you hate me, let me know and I won't sing your song!' So it was really, really important for her to do that and just what a lovely person."

Andrews told Zap2It it was time somebody else had a crack at the role. "I had the best time of my life doing it, and it did wonderful things for me. I think it's great that it's being done again, but doing it live must be so daunting for Carrie," Andrews said in November. "I know they're not doing the movie, though. They're doing the Broadway show—that's what they have the rights to—and I don't know whether it will resonate similarly. In the movie, we cut some things from the stage version and added some songs."

Although Underwood's performance as Maria was met with some harsh reactions on Twitter, the Grammy award-winning singer took to social media and fired right back at her haters.

Will Hart/NBC

"Plain and simple: Mean people need Jesus," the singer tweeted on Friday, Dec. 6, the day after the special aired. "They will be in my prayers tonight... 1 Peter 2:1-25," she added.

Despite the criticism from viewers, NBC isn't going to shy away from another live musical. NBC honcho Robert Greenblatt told The New York Times another holiday season musical will happen with Smash producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan.

"All weekend, people have been calling us and emailing us," Greenblatt told the newspaper. "Rights holders of musicals have said, 'Please do one of our shows.' We're excited to try it again. There's enough to do a handful of these over the next years, if we keep increasing the learning curve. There may be a little bit of a phenomenon to the first one of these. Who knows what happens Year 2, 3 or 4. But you've got to have events. I think we could do this again—and again and again."

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