Carrie Underwood sounds off on 'mean people' post-'Sound of Music'

Carrie Underwood sounds off on ‘mean people’ post-’Sound of Music’

By Nardine Saad

Dec. 7, 2013 1:56 PM PT

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 Friday, a day after the live special. “They will be in my prayers tonight ... 1 Peter 2:1-25.”

PHOTOS: Scenes from ‘The Sound of Music Live!’

That’s one lonely goat herd and a totally different tune from what she tweeted soon after Thursday’s live performance, which brought in a hearty 18.5 million viewers overall and delivered a 4.6 rating with viewers younger than 50, Show Tracker reported.

“Glory to God tonight...I couldn’t be more proud. What a tough thing to pull off and we did it! I am so blessed!!!” she wrote.

The live production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1959 Broadway musical, also starred “True Bloods” star Stephen Moyer as Maria’s employer and love interest, the strict Capt. Georg Von Trapp; Laura Benanti as the Captain’s fiancée, Elsa Schrader; multiple Tony Award-winner and “Private Practice” star Audra McDonald as Mother Abbess and “Smash” alum Christian Borle as family friend Max Detweiler. Somehow, each supporting star outshined Underwood in a show fraught with numerous problems, which were promptly maligned on social media.

PHOTOS: Carrie Underwood: Onstage and backstage

The country singer, who seemed most in her element when singing her lines, already had a big habit to fill since Julie Andrews personified Maria to millions of fans in the wildly successful and beloved 1965 film adaptation of the play.

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.”

PHOTOS: Movie scenes from ‘The Sound of Music’

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.

PHOTOS: Julie Andrews’ life in pictures | Walk of fame

“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.

ALSO:

Pamela Anderson debuts new brunet hair style

Keri Russell separates from husband Shane Deary

William, Kate, Idris Elba attend ‘Mandela’ U.K. premiere

Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.