‘Smash’ Producers to Present a Live ‘Sound of Music’ Broadcast on NBC

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the exective producers of “Smash” as well as the producers of the movie adaptations of musicals “Chicago” and “Hairspray,” are going to be bringing a live broadcast of the original Broadway “The Sound of Music” to NBC.

According to the network’s chairman Robert Greenblatt, this will be a new version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, but one that actually harkens back to an earlier era of television: “There used to be a tradition of broadcasting musicals live back in the 1950s and we’re thrilled to do it once again with a musical that has been a family classic for five decades.”

Rather than reproduce the film version of “The Sound of Music,” Zadan says that the hope here is to give more of a sense of the energy and spontaneity of a stage performance — “all of the actors will be singing live; there will be no lip-synching to pre-recordings.” NBC’s live broadcast incarnation of the musical will include some of songs from the Broadway version in addition to all of the better-known ones from the movie.

For all the talk of reviving a old-school broadcast event, NBC’s probably also looking to continue to capitalize on the very contemporary trend toward “Glee”-style song and dance numbers — it’ll be interesting to see if they look more toward Broadway talent or flashier celebrities to fill out the not-yet-set cast. No air date has yet been announced.