The Sound of Music Drag Show
A drag show sending up The Sound of Music was a show that Jess had been thinking about for ages. She’d saved comedy bits for a possible show and then, finally, she had a venue, a stage and a cast – and so we went to work. We watched the movie multiple times looking for comedy angles for our show. Some jumped out, like Liesl’s sexual curiosity, or the children giving the finger when the Baroness departs.
The cast added characterisations which gave new comedy moments also. The forgetful, dozing off Mother Superior was invented by Kris for instance. We each self directed with Jess guiding our input. The audience from week to week told us if our embelishments to the script were worthwhile.
We sourced sound grabs and Jess did some wonderful dialogue editing to create the Baroness’ meeting Maria scene for example, and Maria’s argument with the Captain.
One of our reviews summed up the show, its intentions and presentation perfectly. It was the outcome we’d hoped for with our idea of a narrative drag show, using comedy, slapstick, parody and satire to give the audience a show on many levels. You could sit back and sing-a-long with the soundtrack, or absorb the different levels of satire and parody we used.
Costumes and Staging
Jess had saved some horribly tasteless curtain fabric for just such a show as this, and so Maria and the children got their ‘play clothes’ and matching curtains on the walls.
Kris Del Vayze had a genuine officer’s coat from an old military uniform and so ‘The Captain’ was suitably attired.
Roxy was a skilled dressmaker and her beautiful Baroness gown was typical of her work.
The rest of the costumes were made by Jess, assisted by Kris and Roxy, and so we had sets of nuns habits, our ‘Springtime’ set with a sight gag for Adolf. The ‘Eurovision’ set of costumes created a riot of colour and the result was an over the top ‘drag’ finale.
Jillette and I visited Bunnings and returned with the materials to create barn doors on stage. They were set so that by opening the ‘windows’ in different combinations and change the colour base of the stage, and allowed some ‘split screen’ effects, such as in the song mix from Cabaret. The swift costume changes, along with the changing stage setups from our barn doors arrangement were another step forward from traditional drag shows.
