'Sound of Music' karaoke ban on nuns

Nuns have been banned from competing in a Sound of Music karaoke roadshow because they keep on walking off with the prizes.

Nuns have been banned from competing in a Sound of Music karaoke roadshow because they keep on walking off with the prizes.

The nuns' success is the result of a devilishly crafty deceit at the expense of fellow competitors who are obsessed with the 35-year-old Rogers and Hammerstein film musical. They all go head-to-head at the Singalonga Sound of Music show, a subtitled karaoke version of the film which has been packing out venues across the UK for more than a year, offering prizes for the most authentic fancy dress based on the musical.

Some fans are obsessed enough to follow Julie Andrews' lead by cutting up curtains to make their clothes. Others wear Lederhosen, cover their heads and shoulders in shaving foam (to represent the Alps) or go dressed as brown paper packages tied up with string.

But the nuns just keep it simple. They go dressed up as nuns from the film, wipe out the opposition with their authentic wimples and take the top prizes - a video of the musical, bars of chocolate and considerable kudos - back to the convent.

One nun in Oxford is known to have won, another in London was runner-up and many other sisterly successes may have gone undetected, according to organisers, whose show has been running at the Prince Charles cinema off Leicester Square in London since May 1999 and who are now arranging separate competitions for nuns.

Any nuns considering yielding to temptation in York's Grand Opera House, where every seat will be taken tonight, should know that she is being watched.