Seattle Men's Chorus: Totally Wicked, March 29, '14

I feel deeply grateful for the experience I was able to have last Saturday night at the Seattle Center.  The Seattle Men's Chorus, the world's largest gay men's choir, brought down a smashing performance in support of the gay movement, particularly for the LGBT youth.  In addition to being very heartfelt, it was distinctly tasteful, with careful attention given to all aspects of the performance.

It took place at McCaw Hall, a huge theater replete with scarlet curtains on the stage--and drew a crowd to fit the size.  There is, of course, something delicious about a men's choir about 300 strong.  The timbre of the combined male voices is both deep and mellow, and brings a sense of nostalgia at times. But to balance it out, the Chorus brought in Broadway star Megan Hilty to sing several numbers from the musical hit "Wicked".

The program was comprised entirely of musical excerpts from legendary composer Stephen Schwartz (the creator of "Wicked"), including songs from Children of Eden, Enchanted, Prince of Egypt, Pocohontas, Pippin and Godspell. They were segmented between the men's choir, the Seattle Woman's Choir, the ensemble "Captain Smartypants" and Diverse Harmony.  In addition, there were several standout soloists from the men's choir, and a fantastic dance troupe, presumably also made up of members of the choir. 

I was deeply impressed by the overall quality of the stage setting, lighting, and sound quality, headed by Dennis Coleman and Eric Lane Barnes.  The scenes were very simple and effective; subtle effects such as a "starry" backdrop, the placement of lights at a 30 degree angle to the stage just enough not to get the choir members behind while illuminating the soloist in front, and the arrangements of the instrumental ensemble for piano, drums, bass, clarinet and flute struck me as well-planned.  From the arrival of "God" atop a folding lift to the closing with a "witch" perched in the same place, the program also showed direction and thoughtfulness.

The dance troupe was my favorite part performance-wise.  The number "All for the Best" from Godspell, with a row of tapdancers competing against a group doing a cane dance, brought down the house.  All of the dancers, though amateur in places, were well-practiced and showed quite a lot of artistic discipline.  I should also note whoever played the part of "Giselle" from Enchanted -- replete with poofy white dress.  He looked like he was having a bit too much fun...and so were the audience.

Megan Hilty, whose birthday just so happened to be that day, wrung huge applause from her native Seattle audience with "Popular" and "For Good".  Her voice is very showy, with a lot of scooping that my "classical" ears aren't used to hearing.  But she certainly lived up to the part.

The final number before the encores was original piece "Testimony", inspired by the "It Gets Better Project", and was a definite tear-jerker.  Although I myself am not queer, I have several close friends who are, and besides that, I identified deeply with the message of self-acceptance and patiently waiting for "better".  The music itself was not as "catchy" as the show-tunes, but infinitely more profound on a harmonic level, so I appreciated it quite a lot.

In short, I'm glad I was able to go to this program, and I would probably go see the Seattle Men's Chorus again in the future.

Cheers!
-G