Culture

December 12, 2013 at 11:46 am

NBC Is Going To Produce More Musicals Thanks To ‘Music!’

By
http://www.thechiefly.com/culture/nbc-musicals-2014/

How do you draw more viewers like Maria?

Start producing more live musicals.

Or at least, that’s what NBC producers have decided to do following the success of the Dec. 5 broadcast of The Sound of Music Live!

Though the musical received lukewarm reviews at best, it drew in more than 18.6 million viewers according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Due to the large success of Music!, executive producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan told The New York Times they were planning on creating another musical for the 2014 holiday season.

Though the producers have not yet chosen a musical for the next season, they told the Times that several rights holders of musicals have contacted them.

USA Today hinted the producers may be leaning towards a live production of Peter Pan, but their inkling is mere speculation at this point.

While the producers are planning on creating another musical for 2014, there is no guarantee that any subsequent musical even will be nearly as successful as Music!

Several factors must be taken into consideration moving forward.

First, the producers are under a much tighter time-crunch moving forward. Music! was under production for 18 months. At this point, producers have just under 12 months to decide upon a musical, cast it, write it, and rehearse it. Rushing a live musical event to increase network ratings may not work in NBC’s favor come next holiday season.

Second, the Times states that the success of the live event could be heavily attributed to casting Carrie Underwood as Maria. While her performance was highly critiqued, especially by the Twitter community, having the main character played by such a well-known household name gave Music! a heavy advantage. Any musical NBC plans on producing in the future would be expected to employ a cast on-par with Underwood.

But producers remain optimistic.

For the small portion of the population that missed Music! live, NBC will be re-airing the event this Saturday, Dec. 14th at 8 p.m.

Kate Tully

Kate Tully

Kate Tully is a writer who hastily moved to Boston, MA in September 2013. She likes to think she knows what she's doing, but realistically she's just a recent college graduate trying to come to grips with the universe. Let her know if you've got tips.
Kate Tully

@kateftully

Tags: ×