The Making Of The Sound Of Music Live: Watch NBC's Full Special Here

NBC celebrated Thanksgiving Eve by airing The Making Of The Sound of Music Live!, a special that looks behind the scenes at the preparation for the upcoming live broadcast of the beloved stage musical, which will star Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer. NBC has since made the special available online, and you can watch it above in its entirety.

We could argue that this making-of special is really just an hour-long promotion for The Sound of Music Live!, but is that really such a bad thing? Beyond teasing the songs set to be featured in the broadcast — which they specify is a “televised version of the stage production” and not a remake of the feature film that followed — the making-of special begins by taking us back fifteen weeks to the start of the casting process to bring the von Trapp family together. There’s a lot of undiscovered young talent out there, and we get to see some of it as various children take their turn to sing “Do-Re-Mi” in an effort impress the producers and earn themselves one of the coveted roles among the von Trapp children. Beyond the selection process, we go to rehearsals, where Carrie Underwood is singing “The Sound of Music.” Underwood soon admits to being nervous about singing that song, as it’s the first song and the title song. But from what we hear, it sounds like she’s nailing it. For Moyer, one of the challenges of preparing for the role is re-learning how to play the guitar for the “Edelweiss” scene.

The rehearsals for the broadcast tease some of the songs we’re all familiar with, including”The Lonely Goatherd,” which is sung during a puppet show in the film, but appears to be set in a bedroom for this broadcast. And we also see rehearsals for “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” the song Liesl and Rolfe will duet to, which will take place on a hilltop (as opposed to a gazebo). We get a better look at that scene when they're rehearsing at the actual studio. Four weeks ahead of the show, the cast began recording the soundtrack for the CD and orchestral tracks for the actual broadcast. It’s implied that the cast will be singing live for the actual broadcast, and based on everything we hear of the cast singing, it sounds like we’re in for a real treat. I’m particularly excited to hear Audra McDonald sing “Climb Every Mountain.”

NBC can’t offer us finished footage of The Sound of Music Live!, as it’s obviously impossible to give us a preview of a live performance, but the Peacock’s done a pretty fantastic job of whetting our appetites for next week’s broadcast, and the making-of special appears to be the apex of their efforts. But something tells me NBC viewers should expect to see plenty of promotions for the event between now and Thursday, December 5 when The Sound of Music Live! airs.