Might have been a different story for that lonely goat up on the hill, if The Sound of Music had been based in these parts.

Plus, cream-coloured ponies and crisp apple strudels. Doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles... A few of your favourite things, are they? Really?

Whoever listed doorbells as one of their favourite things has quite clearly never sat through the abominable temp job I once had of simply buzzing people into a building, (the button was too far away from the phone for the receptionist to reach without missing a call). And sleighbells? Please. They only come about once every year.... and by the time Christmas Day is upon us we're so sick of sleighbells we want to pour petrol over the nearest jingling mode of transport and set it ablaze via a beer fart and a blowtorch. And don't even get me started on ponies, cream-coloured or otherwise. I was never allowed one and I still haven't forgiven my daddy.

Anyway, in spite of its dated absurdity, The Sound of Music is and always will be one of those things that surpasses the ridiculous metaphors which make up its soundtrack, and renders you revelling only in a feeling of joy. It's the story as much as the songs, of course - when the hills were alive and the nuns got the guys, and seven children, when placed in one room, did not feel the urge to bind, torment and torture a power figure with a fork and a homemade shoe bomb. Those were the days.

This May, 22-24, The Sound of Music is coming to Dubai - only it won't be the show as we know it. It's coming directly from the show's home itself, Salzburg, in Austria. Eleven classically trained performers are on board, and there's even set to be an appearance by the REAL Maria Von Trapp - on whom the original story was based.

Although surpassed by Grease in the realms of musical greatness, The Sound of Music, when released in 1965, became the most successful Hollywood musical of all time, and its music (by Richard Rodgers) and lyrics (by Oscar Hammerstein II),has since delighted adults and children alike as a stage show, all over the planet! It's about time Dubai got its share. Even though we have to wait until May, we've penciled it in our diaries and drawn hearts around it in lipstick already. And so should you. Whether you're sixteen going on seventeen, or over sixty wondering what to do with your muggy May night, we can bet the Madinat will be more than alive when The Sound of Music starts!

The Sound of Music
May 22-23, 2008. Al Johara Ballroom, Madinat Jumeirah.
May 24, 2008 The Auditorium, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi

For ticket information visit www.sakshiadvertising.com