Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

I don't know if you've heard about movie sing-alongs before, but they're movie musicals in which the songs have been subtitled so the audience can sing along. They draw quite an audience and people come dressed up as characters and with props. A couple of years ago, The Sound of Music Sing-Along came to town and we missed it--much to Margaret's consternation. We were talking to someone who had seen it when it came to San Fransisco and he said it was hilarious to see all the people (mostly men) dressed as nuns run to the front of the theatre when the "What do you do with a problem like Maria" number came on. Since Margaret was raised on that movie, she felt like she could have quoted the entire film--not just the songs, but the dialogue, too! Alas, it wasn't meant to be, but a reasonable alternative presented itself this weekend in another Julie Andrews classic: Mary Poppins! Yes, the Mary Poppins Sing-Along was in town and we, of course, HAD to go. We found ourselves looking forward to it throughout the week, suddenly finding ourselves singing "Spoonful of sugar" or "Chim chiminey" and not even realizing it. Originally, we hadn't anticipated doing anything special other than attend, but after running a few errands Saturday morning, we drove by a Goodwill and I pulled in, thinking that if something jumped out at us, we'd get it and cobble together costumes. Well boy did we! Margaret found this perfect gray skirt, which set off our hunt for more and more elaborate costumes. After stopping at three used clothes stores, a friend's house to borrow something, and Fred Meyer for the last-minute touches, we came up with two quite elaborate costumes, if I do say so myself.

Margaret's costume was the "First Impression" Mary Poppins, with long gray skirt, frilly white shirt, red bowtie, black hat with flowers on the brim, a long black coat, and an umbrella. Mine was the "Chimney sweep Bert" with a ratty overcoat, red kerchief, hooligan hat, and the coup de grâce: a toilet brush painted black (which was MUCH more convenient to carry around than a full-sized chimney brush, but just as effective, especially with today's gas fireplaces!). When we met up with our friends Cheron and Craig, and I was surprised that they weren't in costume, as they have a long history of dressing up for the most contrived reasons--like when they made silver metallic robot costumes in celebration of National Foil Day back in August. As we entered the theatre, everyone got little goodie bags, which we looked through and thought, "What in the world is all this stuff?" There was a Pixie Stick, a cocktail umbrella, a mini folding fan, a champagne popper (like from the Fourth of July, where you pull a string on a little bottle and shoot confetti right in the face of some unsuspecting kid--despite the fact that the warning specifically forbids that--eh, whatever) two chocolate coins, and a flashcard with "supercalifragilistic" or "expialidocious" on it. Fortunately a woman with a bad English accent came out before the movie and explained all the props--like in the scene where the other nannies get blown away in the wind we were supposed to get out our fans and help blow them away. Or every time someone said "spoonful of sugar" to take a hit off the Pixie Stick.

At this point, we were getting pretty pysched up, only to discover that there was going to be a costume contest, complete with PRIZES! We went up, along with other chimney sweeps and some penguins and came in second! (We lost to the stupid penguins, since they're so hot right now.) Our prize was a movie CD, so we'll be able to relive the evening time and time again. After the contest, the movie started and to say it was a lot of fun would have been an understatement. The crowd was constantly adding commentary, jokes, and sound effects during the movie, and belting out the songs as they came up. One of my favorites was when the bank chairman of the board is trying to get Michael Banks to give up his tuppence. Craig yelled out, "Come on kid, help support the military/industrial complex!") It was so crazy and so Portland. I couldn't believe how many of the songs I knew, even without the subtitles. Some of the songs go so fast, and the subtitling didn't always keep up, but since I'd grown up listening to a Disney Greatest Hits record over and over and over that I found Ididn't really need the subtitles all that much, anyway. (eventually that record go so warped that "Let's go fly a kite" had a slow part and a fast part as the record needle went up one side of the warp and sped down the other side. Now when I hear that song, it sounds funny without the speed changes.)

After the show, both Cheron and Craig admitted that neither of them had seen the movie before. I can't even imagine what they must have thought when they saw us come into the restuarant to meet them and later enthusiastically belting out these songs they didn't even know. They probably thought I'd just forgotten to wash my face and that Margaret was in her Edwardian-era again (like she was back in 1998.) Anyway, we had a great time, and now we have costumes for next Halloween, too!