Sound Of Music

Wilde Lake High School's drama department is presenting the 1936 comedy You Can't Take It With You, by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, at 7:30 p.m. today and tomorrow at Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts. "Before there were the Osbournes and the Tannenbaums, there were the Sycamores ... a wacky family," said drama teacher Sally Livingston, who directs the play. Tracy Adler, who also teaches drama at the school, is the producer. More than 40 students are in the cast and support staff, working on sound, sets, props, costumes, hair and makeup.

Lorenzo's Timonium Dinner Theatre. "The Sound of Music." Needed are two boys and four girls, ages 5-15, to play the roles of the Von Trapp children. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday and 6 p.m.-7 p.m. Monday at the theater, 9603 Deereco Road. Call 410-560-1113. Chesapeake Music Hall. "The Wizard of Oz." 1 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Monday at the theater, 339 Busch's Frontage Road in Annapolis. All roles are open, except the Lion (though an understudy is needed for that part). Children must be at least 10 years old. Be prepared to sing, dance and read.

When Richard Chamberlain thinks of Baltimore, he thinks of the place that made him feel the most like a pop star.The time was September 1962, the height of his popularity in the title role of the hit NBC TV series, "Dr. Kildare" -- popularity that elicited 12,000 fan letters a week. The place was Patterson Park, and the event was a combined celebration of several patriotic holidays, which attracted 400,000 spectators. Chamberlain was honorary grand marshal of the parade."I was sitting up in these sort of temporary bleachers, and the crowd was across the street," he recalls.

theater Rodgers & Hammerstein: They might not be carols in the strictest sense, but the songwriting duo's rhapsodic melodies put hope in your heart. An Enchanted Evening: Everyman Theatre Presents Rodgers & Hammerstein will feature music from South Pacific, Oklahoma!, The King and I and The Song of Music. See the concert tomorrow through Tuesday at 1727 N. Charles St. Showtimes vary. Tickets are $30. Call 410-752-2208 or go to everymantheatre.org. Mary CaroleMcCauley arts 'Green Community': Innovative examples of environmentally friendly design are featured in Green Community, an exhibit that goes beyond bamboo floors and fluorescent light bulbs to explore the complex process of creating and sustaining healthy communities.

'Family Fun and Fireworks'Escape the doldrums of summer and bring the kids to an evening of cartoon culture, classical television music and popular movie tunes with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Saturday at Oregon Ridge Park. Hear selections from "The Sound of Music," "The Little Mermaid," "Toy Story" and "Anastasia," as well as other favorites. Games and activities, including a parade of musical instruments led by Bart Simpson, will entertain kids of all ages before the concert. Fireworks will provide an explosive finale to the evening.

Not so long ago left for dead, the movie musical is showing renewed signs of life this year, even if filmmakers are still trying to figure out what form that life will take. Hairspray, the film version of the Broadway play based on sleaze auteur John Waters' ode to integration and other weighty matters on Baltimore's early-'60s dance floors (whew!), was one of the summer's surprise hits. With a total box-office take so far of $116.4 million, it's the fourth-highest-grossing movie musical ever, behind only The Sound of Music, Grease and Chicago.

Never mind that she and her family have traveled the world singing and been the subject of one of the most beloved musicals of all time. Agathe von Trapp spent much of her life as a virtual recluse. She was 43 before she stopped relying on someone older and wiser and went to the grocery store and the bank herself. For nearly 40 more years after that, she interacted with few people outside a private kindergarten classroom in Glyndon. But eventually, her desire for the world to know the truth behind The Sound of Music took over.

When the average American music fan slips a CD into the stereo and hits "play," there's a very good chance that the machine doing the playing is Japanese. It's a sure thing, though, that the music being played isn't.Despite the fact that Japan has one of the largest and most active music markets in the world -- $3.6 billion in sales for the first six months of 1995, as compared with $5.1 billion in the United States, according to the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry -- Japanese pop remains a world unto itself.

STOWE, Vt. -- This woman sitting before us, leading an evening sing-along at a popular Vermont lodge, is part of a legend. Most of us -- baby boomers with children -- knew that as we enticed our families to join this makeshift choir.Yet the woman's face and her soprano voice are unfamiliar.She is slender, 60ish, with long gray hair pulled back, framing kind and almost cherubic features. She is dressed in a red-and-black checkered jumper and a white turtleneck. She speaks softly, a slight accent detectable, a lingering reminder of her Austrian childhood.

It's Rodgers and Hammerstein time in Baltimore. Not only does "The Sound of Music" open at the Lyric Opera House next week, but Loews movie theaters has made the classic Broadway songwriting duo the focus of their fourth annual Theatrical Film Festival to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.This year's festival kicks off on Sunday with a 2 p.m. screening of "South Pacific," starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, at Loews Valley Centre Theatre, 9616 Reisterstown Road, Owings Mills.The musical, based on a story from James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific," celebrated its 50th anniversary in April.