If you think you know every last word to every single song in the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein family classic The Sound of Music, here’s your chance to test that theory. Or maybe your renditions go something like “Edelweiss, edelweiss, la la lala la laaaaaaaa laaaaaaa!” and you’d like to remedy that. Tonight ABC presents The Sound of Music: Sing-A-Long, a special edition of the beloved film featuring subtitles to its Grammy-nominated soundtrack that allow you to channel your inner Fräulein Maria or Captain von Trapp with confidence.
First broadcast on television on ABC in 1976, the five-time Oscar winner tells the true story of Maria von Trapp (Julie Andrews), a young nun who leaves her Austrian convent to become governess to the seven restless children of widowed naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Though von Trapp is engaged to glamorous Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Eleanor Parker), the newcomer’s charming ways soon make him realize who really owns his heart. But when Nazi Germany unites with Austria shortly after the pair’s wedding, the von Trapps rely on their musical skills and the convent’s sisters to make a daring escape across the mountains.
Akin to a more wholesome version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, “Sing-A-Long Sound of Music” screenings got their start in London, with audience members dressing up as their favorite characters and, yes, singing along lustily to superimposed subtitles. The film came stateside in 2000, with New York and Hollywood attendees growing even more inventive with their costumes and festivities.
And now you can stage your own mini version right there in your living room. Because when you know the notes words to sing … well, you know.
The Sound of Music: Sing-A-Long airs Sunday, Dec. 21 at 7/6CT on ABC
I can’t imagine why you would need the words to this classic film put up on the screen with bothersome highlighting, ala Karaoke. Had to turn it off it is so bothersome. If you want to sing along with the songs, I am sure you know the words. And if you don’t, well there is that option of Closed Captioning on your TV, right? Surprised that the copyright owners would allow this defacing of this classic film.