NBC now has someone to star opposite of Carrie Underwood in its live holiday production of The Sound Of Music: Stephen Moyer, leading male actor of HBO’s True Blood. The three-hour production will air on December 5th and will be based on the original 1965 Broadway show.
Underwood will be portraying Maria, who is hired by Von Trapp to take care of his seven children. While Underwood is well known for her singing abilities, this will be the first time many audiences get to see Vampire Bill – er, Stephen Moyer – sing, and it will be live.
Moyer’s True Blood character Bill Compton is a Louisiana man, who was “turned vampire” shortly after fighting for the South in the Civil War, hence Compton’s old-fashioned English in addition to his Southern drawl. Stephen Moyer the actual person, however, is an Englishman with a theater background. His Sound of Music casting news comes just briefly after he finished a three-night stint in a musical production of Chicago at the Hollywood Bowl, in which he played Billy Flynn.
Moyer has been playing the male lead in True Blood for six full seasons now and will likely remain a series regular until the long-airing drama comes to an end. The program has been renewed for its seven season, though each season wrap inspires talk of which season will be its last. Initially adapted from Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries novels, True Blood has clearly deviated largely from the original content at this point and has already enjoyed a successful six years.
As a True Blood fan, I will most definitely be watching NBC’s production of The Sound Of Music now that Moyer has been added to the cast. TB‘s writers take Bill to different places – whether he’s Vampire Bill, King Bill, or Billith – but Moyer always remains one of the most consistent rocks of the show, adding emotion and humor while maintaining Bon Temps’ familiar feel.