'Sound of Music' sing-along at Opera House

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Sing-along-a-Sound of Music comes to the City Opera House Saturday. Special to the Record-Eagle

June 22, 2012

'Sound of Music' sing-along at Opera House

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Sun Jun 24, 2012, 10:18 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Stefanie Miller grew up watching "The Sound of Music" on TV. Now she's hosting a sing-along version of the 1965 movie musical for live audiences.

Miller and the Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music will travel to the City Opera House for two shows on Saturday, June 23. The event, at 2 and 8 p.m., is billed as an interactive celebration where audiences are "the stars of the show."

"You don't have to be a trained singer," said Miller, who has hosted nearly 10 of the sing-along events on the East Coast. "You go to have a good time, you go with your family and friends to sing. It's like a big karaoke party."

Participants get a "Magic Moments" fun pack containing props to use at interactive moments during the movie, shown in Technicolor with subtitles. Miller explains how and when to use the props, including a flower sprig to wave during the "Edelweiss" song, a party popper to pop when Maria and Captain von Trapp kiss, and a swatch of flowered fabric to hold up to help "give" Maria the idea to make playclothes from curtains for her active charges.

Miller's favorite is a pair of cards, each bearing a question mark or the word "Maria," which audiences alternately hold up during the song, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria."

"It gets to be a little challenging," she said. "It can be pretty funny."

An event highlight is the short costume parade and contest that precedes the movie, she said. Besides nuns, Maria and the lonely goatherd, audiences have dressed in lederhosen, homemade curtains and brown paper (packages) tied up in string.

"One of the funniest I've seen was the group of women who came as paper mache mountains," Miller said. "They had holes for their heads and they walked together as 'The Hills are Alive.'"

Miller grew up in San Diego and earned a musical theater degree from the University of California, Irvine. Her backstage and onstage experience includes everything from acting in college shows to doing wigs and hair at the La Jolla Playhouse. Now living in New York, she manages a bath-and-body boutique between show auditions.

In her host guise, she functions as both a teacher, a cheerleader and the class clown, teaching hand motions for the "Do Re Me" song, leading a warm-up sing-along and encouraging folks to leave their inhibitions behind.

"I help to get people out of their skin, to get people to want to play," she said. "I tell them, 'It's OK to sing in public and it's OK to do it in front of a bunch of people you don't know.'"

Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music launched in New York in 2000 and since has played throughout the U.S. and Canada. It has sold out six times at the Hollywood Bowl, the world's largest outdoor movie theater. A similar event at the State Theatre in 2010 also attracted a sell-out crowd, including Mary Fuller and her daughter, Katelyn Morrow.

"It was wonderful," said Fuller, of Traverse City, who registered for free tickets for the City Opera House version. "It was really neat when it started and you could hear the whole theater singing. It was this big, choir kind of feeling."

Miller credits the popularity of the sing-alongs to the movie's family-friendly story about a naive young novitiate (Julie Andrews) who learns about love and the outside world when she is sent by her Mother Superior to help a middle-aged widower (Christopher Plummer) rear his seven children.

"I love seeing families come together to see this movie," said the actress, who was 5 or 6 when she fell in love with the film. "It's really cool to see so many generations who have enjoyed the movie and then sharing it with kids who maybe have only seen it in their living room or have maybe not seen it at all. With arts cuts in schools, kids don't have this experience very often. And having a venue to do it in is very special."

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for student and $10 for children, plus processing fees. Groups of 10 or more get a 20 percent discount.

Miller encourages coming in costume with an adventurous spirit.

"Just come ready to leave whatever is going on, the stress of life, at the door," she said. "Come ready for fun."

Come ready to settle in for a while, too. The show, with introductory activities, runs three hours and 40 minutes.

For more information, visit www.cityoperahouse.org.