Melbourne-based producer Tim Woods insists there is humor in the 1965 musical. Tim Woods, a veteran of the Australian theatre scene who has previously brought the slapstick act Tokyo Shock Boys and deadpan US funnyman Steven Wright to the Comedy Festival, took a year to secure the Antipodean rights. The movie lasts for more than three and a half hours, and beforehand, an MC leads singing practice and gives prizes to the best dressed in the audience, including Best Nun male or female. In the unlikely event that the crowd don't know the words to every song, the lyrics are shown on the screen throughout the movie. Woods says The Sound of Music endures because it is the perfect movie.
People get into it with great gusto.
You can anonymously sing, and no one is going to say, you're out of key. It's just incredible what it sounds like. It sounds like a 1000 voice choir. Woods points out that the audience was always included in The Sound of Music , in scenes such as the von Trapps' concert to Nazi soldiers before they flee, and the impromptu performance in their mansion at Georg von Trapp's ball, and he sees the actual involvement of the audience in singing along as a natural extension of that. People are dying to, are delighted to be invited to participate.