The haters are alive with The Sound of Music Live! — and NBC’s live-musical star Carrie Underwood is quickly learning that there’s no way to stop them.
The former American Idol winner, who played governess and would-be nun Maria Von Trapp, was the first to be dropped from several people’s favorite things list because of her novice acting chops.
“Plain and simple: Mean people need Jesus,” Underwood tweeted on Friday, a day after the live special. “They will be in my prayers tonight ... 1 Peter 2:1-25.”
As it turns out, the real Von Trapp family, on which the musical is based, was unhappy with Underwood’s casting even before the show went on.
“Although her voice is amazing, she doesn’t have acting experience,” Myles von Trapp Derbyshire, the great-grandson of the real-life Maria, told ABC News. “It’s just the overall image, she’s a country star, she won American Idol, she’s very public in kind of a tabloid way.”
So how do you solve a problem like Underwood’s Maria? The family actually preferred to cast Andrews’ Princess Diaries costar Anne Hathaway, who won the supporting actress Oscar for her role in the film adaptation of the musical, Les Miserables.
“Here’s someone who just won an Oscar for a similar situation,” Derbyshire, 28, said of Hathaway. “She was able to act and sing.”
Kym Karath, who played Gretl Von Trapp in the film, echoed the family’s sentiments.
“Love Carrie Underwood but this role is just not right for her,” Karath tweeted during the show. “She is lovely her voice is beautiful but acting is wrong.”
“To be clear I love Carrie Underwood. Just not as Maria. She was brave to take it on. And this doesn’t lessen my respect for her talent,” Karath added.
Even before the show, Underwood was weary of the impending criticism.
“I get hate tweets and stuff like, ‘You’re not Julie Andrews!’ “ the 30-year-old told Entertainment Weekly. “I know I’m not Julie. Nobody is and I would never pretend that I was. ... I know my place.”
Andrews, however, seemed ready to pass the torch.
“Fifty years later, it’s time somebody had another crack at it,” Andrews, 78, told Zap2It earlier this year. “I had the best time of my life doing it, and it did wonderful things for me.”
“I think it’s great that it’s being done again, but doing it live must be so daunting,” she added. “I do hope it works for Carrie, because she’s lovely and I’m a fan. I wish her well.”
Nonetheless, perhaps it’s so long and farewell to Carrie’s acting career.
