The Loft Cinema is ending another year of raucous singalong screenings with The Very Merry Holiday Singalong Spectacular, two hours of general merriment featuring off-key singing and excessive Santa-hat wearing.
Tonight's program includes karaoke-style, subtitled musical excerpts from various movies, videos and TV shows, including "A Christmas Story" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas," plus clips featuring Pee-wee Herman and Charlie Brown and videos from the likes of U2, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.
Moviegoers are encouraged to wear their most garish Christmas attire, and those who don ugly sweaters will be invited to take part in a parade. Attendees will also get to step onstage and share wacky holiday stories.
The Loft is handing out free candy canes and will sell egg nog at the concession stand.
Jeff Yanc, the Loft's 38-year-old program director, is the ringleader of the indie art house's sing-along mayhem. The holiday sing-along is the Loft's sixth this year. The most popular was the annual Independence Day "Team America: World Police Singalong and Cursealong," which drew a crowd of 350.
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Yanc, a University of Arizona graduate, says viewers should prepare their lungs for another year of song and silliness in 2011.
What's your wildest memory from a Loft sing-along?
"I would have to say the overall insanity of our Michael Jackson Singalong, which took place on Michael's 51st birthday just a couple of months after he passed away, was the overall craziest. We had a sold-out house of 500 people.
"Everyone was dressed up as MJ to some extent, and literally every single person in the theater was on their feet dancing, screaming and sweating through the entire show. Little kids were break dancing in the aisles, people were laughing and crying and moonwalking, sequins were flying. It almost felt like mass hysteria, but in a good way."
How did the idea for the Christmas sing-along come about?
"The basic idea was hatched last year, when we did our first holiday sing-along, from wanting to create a new holiday tradition of 'movie-seat caroling,' which is pretty much just like it sounds - singing all of the classic holiday tunes at the top of your lungs, but from a movie seat."
What's the usual scene at a Loft sing-along like?
"Well-controlled chaos. The sing-alongs tend to feel like big, fun parties thrown by your friend who just happens to have a 50-foot movie screen and 500 seats in his or her living room. It's always very festive, and it's great seeing such a wide range of people, from little kids to senior citizens, getting together and really letting it rip over their favorite movies, music and videos. Many people also tend to show up in costume, which I always appreciate."
What sing-alongs or other big events can readers look forward to next year?
"Every year, we always have more ideas for sing-alongs than we can actually make happen, due to all of the other programming we have going on at the theater, but we do have a 'West Side Story Singalong' planned for Valentine's Day, and we're also planning on doing a new sing-along we're calling Gettin' Jiggy Wit It: The Cheezy Hip-Hop Singalong, featuring the absolute cheeziest hip- hop music videos from the '80s and '90s. I'm very much looking forward to eyeballing Tucson's supply of vintage Hammer pants."
IF YOU GO
• What: The Very Merry Holiday Singalong Spectacular.
• When: 7:30 p.m. tonight.
• Where: The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.
• Admission: $8. Bring in an unwrapped toy for Casa de los Niños and receive half-price admission.
If you're involved in filmmaking and would like to be featured in a Q&A, write to pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
