“Are you all right, luv?” was the genuine reaction of the governess with the mostest, after one of the kids — Marta — took a spill during a big number in The Sound of Music Live. Kara Tointon, playing that unsolvable problem named Maria, reached out to the four-year-old singing, scampering, and slipping Marta Von Trapp — all while carrying another child in her arms. It was a sweet little unscripted moment that gave the audience a jolt and more pleasure than raindrops on roses.
Meanwhile anyone who saw it was immediately smitten with Kara Tointon, who couldn’t have seemed more genuine or generous in the moment. It’s exactly, you might say, the reaction that Maria Rainer would have had. Or Julie Andrews. Tointon is probably just a nice person, but it could be she’s also a fantastic method actor — after all her reaction is just what the governess would do.