Three big Broadway talents have been added to the star-studded cast of NBC’s upcoming live production of “The Sound of Music,” starring Carrie Underwood.

Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle have been added to the lineup of the Dec. 5 broadcast of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

McDonald, who has won five Tonys, including for “The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," will play Mother Abbess. Benanti, who will play Elsa Schrader, won a Tony for “Gypsy” and was also nominated for “Into the Woods,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and “Swing!”

Borle, set to play Max Dettweiler, recently starred in “Smash” and won a Tony for his performance in “Peter and the Starcatcher.”


Multi-platinum recording artist Underwood is set to star as Maria, with Stephen Moyer ("True Blood") as World War I hero Capt. Georg Von Trapp. The three-hour production will be based on the original 1959 Broadway production of “The Sound of Music,” which starred Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel.

The upcoming TV musical is executive-produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan. Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford will direct. 

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