Carrie Underwood - The Sound Of Music

Newsday reports on The Sound of Music Live!, which airs on Thursday at 8PM.

NBC has a lot riding on this one. The production boasts two directors (Broadway vet Rob Ashford, who worked with the cast on character, and Beth McCarthy-Miller, who has helmed live shows including "Saturday Night Live") -- six lavish sets (Alps, abbey, and so on, constructed in a row, extending about a half-mile inside a hangar-like building) -- and 12 cameras (six to shoot a scene as another six maneuver into position to shoot the next scene, a leapfrogging dance requiring rehearsal just like the actors). Plus one popular if inexperienced star. "I've always been up for a challenge," says Underwood, an "American Idol" darling who's never performed in a musical. Not even in high school, back in Checotah, Okla.