Sunday, November 30, 2008

Doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles!

B and I went to the sing-along Sound of Music tonight at the Music Box. Predictably, the crowd was mostly women, although there were some boyfriends/husbands scattered here and there.

"I'd have to have a cancer diagnosis before I could convince my husband to come to this," B said, as we watched a grim-faced husband settle down next to his wife, after furtively looking around to make sure nobody he knew was there.

There was the traditional pre-show hoopla, complete with costume contest (a woman actually dressed as a snowy white winter that melts into spring). Our Emcee gave us trivia tidbits, including the note that the aerial shots were achieved by strapping some poor cameraman to the foot of a helicopter. Apparently he came so close to Julie Andrews during the opening shot that he knocked her down.

And of course we had our goodie bag, complete with props for use during certain numbers. I now have a flashcard that says "Flibbertigibbet."

I had always thought of The Sound of Music as an overly sweet movie targeted at the Little Women set, but I have to say, seeing the entire uncut movie in a huge theater on a big screen with an enthusiastic audience, well, it really rocked. We barked at Rolf, hissed at the Baroness, and booed the Nazis. Well, almost all of us; the people behind us had brought along two severely mentally retarded people, and the girl had a tendency to break out into delicate gales of giggles when the Nazis appeared on screen. I imagined the headline: RETARDED GIRL LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF NAZIS. A bit of poetic justice, really.

And oh, Christopher Plummer. I mean, really. With those eyes, in those suits.

"He just..smolders," B whispered as we drooled onto our pieces of plastic Edelweiss.

It was pretty awesome. I still love when the Mother Superior hits that glass-breaking high note, although encouraging a young woman to climb every mountain seems distinctly un-nun-like.

No comments: