60 years ago this week: One of the seminal moments in musical theatre history transpired with the opening of Rodgers Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music on Broadway. That first production, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, ended up running for 1,443 performances and spawned the massively popular 1965 film and countless movie theatre sing-a-longs since then.

Mary Martin singing “The Sound of Music”

And the movie trailer…

—Sarah Zupko

The Beatles on Record will premiere in the U.S. Wednesday 25 November 10PM ET/PT on the History Channel. The documentary was originally released by the BBC in September and it covers the Beatles’ musical and creative journey from Please Please Me through Abbey Road. The Beatles on Record was narrated by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Sir George Martin and directed by Bob Smeaton, director of the Beatles’ Anthology series and creator of the mini-documentaries for the Beatles’ 2009 re-mastered albums.

—Allison Taich

Lightspeed Champion
Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
(Domino)
Releasing: 1 February [U.K.] 16 February [U.S.]

“Marlene”, the first single from the sophomore Lightspeed Champion (of Test Icicles fame) album has a pretty snazzy trailer. They way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if everything started getting trailers. Vaccinations. Traffic violations. Filibusters. It’s a slippery slope. Nigh frictionless, dare I say.

SONG LIST
01 Dead Head Blues
02 Marlene
03 There’s Nothing Underwater
04 Intermission
05 Faculty of Fears
06 The Big Guns of Highsmith
07 Romart
08 I Don’t Want to Wake Up Alone
09 Madame Van Damme
10 Smooth Day (At the Library)
11 Intermission 2
12 Sweetheart
13 Etude Op.3 “Goodnight Michalek”
14 Middle of the Dark
15 A Bridge and a Goodbye

—Tyler Gould

Tim Burton’s highly anticipated interpretation of the Lewis Carrol/Disney classic promises to deliver with a clever mix of live action and computer animation. Disney’s animated classic entertains, but undershoots the creepy, ominous tone found in the book. We posted a teaser last month; here’s a trailer.

—Katharine Wray

The Fourth Kind, a provocative thriller set in Nome, Alaska, is the story of psychologist Dr Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) and the videotaped sessions she made with traumatized patients. In the tapes, based on actual case studies, evidence of an disturbing alien abduction emerges. Spooky, no?

—Ashley Cooper

The Decemberists have teamed up with four filmmakers—Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria—to create an hour-long animation for their most recent album, The Hazards of Love. The band has officially released the trailer for their upcoming event, on October 19, where they will perform the entire piece synchronized with the animation, as well as an additional second set of old songs and new material. The show will take place at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus.

—Faye Rasmussen