Last year McDonald won her 5th career Tony Award for her leading performance in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. She previously won Tonys for Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun.
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The three-hour Dec. 5 live telecast will feature six-time Grammy winner Underwood as Maria and “True Blood” star Stephen Moyer as Capt. Georg von Trapp with Tony Award winners McDonald (Mother Abbess), Benanti (Elsa Schrader) and Borle (Max Dettweiler).
A companion soundtrack for the live event will be released Dec. 3.
The young cast set to play the von Trapp children are Ariane Rinehart (Liesl), Michael Nigro (Fredrich), Ella Watts-Gorman (Louisa), Joe West (Kurt), Sophia Caruso (Brigitta), Grace Rundhaug (Marta) and Peyton Ella as young Gretl.
NBC will also air a "Making of The Sound of Music Live!" special. Read about it here.
The live TV version of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical is based on the original 1959 Broadway production of The Sound of Music, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The iconic story, according to NBC, "centers on a young woman who leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the seven children of a naval officer widower."
The creative team includes production designer Derek McLane, art director Kevin Rupnik and assistant art director Aimee Dombo.
The Sound of Music Live! is executive-produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan. Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford serve as co-directors.
The Sound of Music Live! is produced by Universal Television.
