SING-ALONG SOUND OF MUSIC

Condensed from this week's issue of The New Yorker (Anthony Lane):

"Since August, every Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, the Prince Charles Cinema off Piccadilly, has been programming the "Sing Along Sound of Music". The idea is simple. You watch the film -- uncut as nature intended, in a scuzzy print. The only difference is the added subtitles for each song. Every screening has an m.c., who oversees a Best Costume competition during the intermission. When I arrived on a Friday night, an hour before the start, the area around the cinema was packed. To be specific, it was packed with nuns, many of whom bore guitars. (One week, just to confuse the issue, the winner of the Competition was a real nun). There were Nazis, naturally, as in every major city, plus a lot of people who looked like giant parcels. "Who are they?" I said to a nun who was having a quick cigarette before the film. She looked at me with celestial pity and blew smoke: "Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings". Of course. One night, when I was not there, a guy turned up in a skintight, all-over body costume in bright yellow; asked which character he intened to represent, he explained that he was Ray, A Drop of Golden Sun.

Among the delights: two hundred people whistling at Christopher Plummer when he enters with a riding crop; lighters waving overhead during his rendition of "Edelweiss"; explicit instructions to Rolf concerning the strapping Hitler Youth's taking Liesl in hand, etc. -- For an extra five dollars, ticket holders can buy a helpful gift pack that includes fake edelweiss, a packet of cough drops, a head scarf, and a small foamrubber nun puppet, in which you are urged to "stick your fingers and sway along".

Sing-Along Sound of Music is such a hit that it is going on a national tour, and in April it will hit America. Twentieth Century Fox will not yet name the lucky cinemas where it will screen, but I can safely reveal that New York and San Francisco, among others, should be girding their loins for Schnitzel Time."