March 10-16, 2005

mixpicks

Plush Melodies

Sing-along

OK, sure, so Miss Piggy's "Never Before, Never Again" is a caterwauling piece of melodramatic schmaltz. And yeah, Gonzo's only lead vocal — the sleepy ballad "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" — totally downplays the weirdo's burgeoning star power. Misfires aside, most musical moments in The Muppet Movie are stellar, silly and ripe for a sing-along. Seriously, how could you not bob your head to Kermit and Fozzie's jangling road trip duet "Movin' Right Along"? Or at least shout the chorus to "Can You Picture That" while watching Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem turn a brown Studebaker rainbow-colored? West Philly's Spiral Q Puppet Theater's benefit screening plays right into Jim Henson's optimistic absurdity as captured in the 1979 cult classic, since the hosts are encouraging attendees to dress in Muppet regalia and mingle with stilt walkers and giant puppets wandering the crowd. It's not clear yet whether participatory parts of the film will be aided by lyric sheets or karaoke-style teleprompters. Really, though, neither would be necessary. The songs are so ingrained in our collective memory that if you took a banjo, walked up to somebody in their late 20s or early 30s and plucked the famous triad of notes that opens the film, they could probably respond, "Why are there so many songs about rainbows?"

The Muppet Movie Sing-A-Long 2, Sat., March 12, 2 p.m. (family matinee) and 8 p.m., $10 adults, $5 children, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-222-6979, www.spiralq.org.

—John Vettese