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Wednesday, October 02, 2002

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

Break out your lederhosen, freshen up your wimple, pluck a sprig of edelweiss and start thinking of all those favorite things -- "Sing-A-Long Sound of Music" is here for six noisy, irreverent performances, starting tonight.

	"Sing-A-Long Sound of Music" WHERE: Cultural Trust Presents at Byham Theater, Downtown. WHEN: 7 p.m. through Friday; 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. Sunday. TICKETS: $20 (children $10; students $15); 412-456-6666 or www.pgharts.org/events.

No, you don't actually have to bring your own costume or props, but rest assured that some of your neighbors are already imagining themselves as nuns, goatherds, Austrian choir boys or, God forbid, Nazis.

Indeed, the list of costumable characters from "The Sound of Music" that has evolved at long-running "Sing-A-Longs" in London and elsewhere is theoretically infinite, from "Ray, a Drop of Golden Sun" to ... well, the costume winner at a recent preview was "Silver White Winters That Melt Into Springs" -- an elaborate snow-capped green cap with Slinkys dangling below. I also liked two drag "Hills Are Alive" nuns, whose costume (their "hills," to be exact) was rather rude.

By the way, if these specific costumes show up this week at the pre-show costume contest, the audience should boo them down -- what's funny about a borrowed costume?

That preview was Sept. 22 as a benefit for the Persad Center, so there was a large gay attendance and perhaps a more ebullient outpouring of costumes and loudly affectionate commentary than you can always count on. (Not to mention the cheer for the Baroness when she says, "I do give some rather gay parties.")

But I hope this week's audiences measure up, because at its best, "SALSoM" is a boisterous audience participation event. You may think you are going just to see your favorite family film on the big Byham screen, but it isn't only the songs that get audience participation, with the lyrics (even the Latin Mass) obligingly printed on the screen. You also will want to hiss the Baroness, "awwww" Gretl, cheer Maria, and shout advice on those ugly curtains. Your ticket also gets you a small packet of props -- fake edelweiss to wave, invitation to flash, cards to display and a party popper to pop at the exact moment the captain finally kisses Maria in the gazebo.

The evening is designed to release your inner child, and it does. Call it the family values version of "Rocky Horror," made up of equal parts eager von Trapp channeling and camp mockery.

One favorite thing you won't enjoy this week is Charmian Carr, a great deal more attractive at her current age than she was as the movie's Liesl. She was here on the 22nd to help master of ceremonies Joe DeLien manage the preliminary warm-up and costume contest. The instruction to bark at Rolf "because he treated Liesl like a dog" had extra authority coming from her.

Carr left acting when her kids entered school and is now an interior designer with a specialty in hospitals. We talked about Christopher Plummer, famous for disparaging the movie as "The Sound of Mucus": "It's a shame he won't go along to a 'Sing-A-Long,' " she said, "because he'd love it."

He'd love the disrespect of it, she meant. We, on the other hand, can have it both ways, tearing up at the usual points and also laughing with sophomoric glee.