Some people go for raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. But for show director Julie-Ann Willems, Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music definitely counts as one of her favourite things. “I’ve worked on about 15 to 20 productions of Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music all over Australia,” says Willems. “We always get lots of ad libbing, lots of laughs, and lots of singing. People always come out of there happy.”
The film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical has been a camp favourite and a television staple since its release in 1965. Then in London in 1999 someone had the brilliant idea of holding a cinema screening with subtitles for the movie’s memorable songs. Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon, bringing together personalities ranging from grandmothers to cross-dressing nuns. Whether it’s a tradition, a secret dream, or simply something you’ve been planning to cross off the bucket list, Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music is coming to Sydney’s State Theatre this month, and promises to be an experience you’re unlikely to forget.
“There will literally be hundreds of people dressed up,” Willems says. “You get a lot of Marias and girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, but we also see plenty of nuns of both sexes, and we’ve even had the puppets from the ‘Lonely Goatherd’ puppet show. And then they get a little more obscure. We’ve had plumbers – as in Christopher Plummer! – we’ve had people who are the actual hills, and a woman even dressed up as a frog one year. It took us a moment to realise she was the little frog the kids put in Maria’s pocket when she first arrives at the house.”
This year the special guest MC is feisty cabaret singer Marika Aubrey, who will warm you up, reel you in and host the costume parade. If the yodelling isn’t enough of a Sound of Music fix, you can guarantee yourself plenty to do through the provided interactive ‘fun packs’, containing objects ranging from a piece of edelweiss to wave when the Captain finally sings, to a party popper to be let off mid-film. “Everyone lets them off when the Captain and Maria kiss for the first time,” says Willems. “It’s pretty amazing when you hear a couple thousand party poppers all going off in the State Theatre at the same time. It’s pretty wild.
“But the audience themselves are the big surprise of the night,” she says. “You never quite know what people are going to dress up as, and we never cease to be amazed and delighted by that, so it’s just a joy to work on. People are so happy when they are there and always smiling as they leave.”
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