ITV Preps Live Sound of Music TV Event

LONDON: ITV has lined up a live broadcast of The Sound of Music, to air on the British broadcaster around the Christmas holiday.

The 90-minute musical drama will go out live on the channel. It is based on the original stage musical and will include all of the songs from its classic score. It is an ITV Studios production for ITV.

The Sound of Music Live! will feature Kara Tointon (Mr Selfridge, Pygmalion, EastEnders) as Maria, Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey, Smash, My Night With Reg) as Captain Georg von Trapp, Katherine Kelly (Mr Selfridge, She Stoops to Conquer, Coronation Street) as Baroness Elsa Schraeder and Alexander Armstrong (Armstrong and Miller, Pointless, Danger Mouse) as Max Detweiler.

Director Coky Giedroyc (Wuthering Heights, The Virgin Queen, Oliver Twist, Penny Dreadful) will be creative director, while Martin Koch (Billy Elliot the Musical, Mamma Mia!) will be musical director. 

ITV’s director of entertainment and comedy, Elaine Bedell, said: “This is the first time in the U.K. that this type of project has been attempted—a musical drama both performed and broadcast live—but big ambitious live television events is what ITV does well. We've assembled some of the very best talent both in front of and behind the camera and I can't wait to see it all come together." 

Victoria Fea, ITV’s controller of drama, said: "We are so thrilled to be making a landmark production of this eternally popular show, which promises to be a highlight of the Christmas schedules. There are some much-loved performers already preparing for the big night and we know they won't disappoint.” 

Ted Chapin, the president of Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, said: “The Sound of Music really is in a class by itself. Since the early '60s, it has lived on as both an award-winning Broadway musical and an award-winning film. The notion of creating a production for live television broadcast is a large undertaking, and one we are delighted ITV has taken on for what will undoubtedly be a Christmastime treat for the whole of the U.K.”