Sir Ian McKellen's Some Enchanted Evening

Any time that song comes up in conversation, I love sharing this story. A decade or two ago, I went to see a community theatre production of South Pacific. They had cast a very dignified older actor in the lead, but he couldn't sing a note. So he spoke his lyrics dramatically, a la Sebastian Cabot.

The other trouble was, he wasn't very good with accents either. So he shot for an Italian accent, but came away with a Hungarian one instead. And do you know what it sounds like when you dramatically speak poetry in a Hungarian accent? It sounds like Dracula.

The whole show, I was trying not to giggle, thinking of Bela Lugosi dramatically intoning "Some enchanted evening... you might, see a stranger..."