- SING OUT, LOUISE! | Keane Fletcher, front, is one of the openly gay members of the popera dectet The Ten Tenors.
Getting down with Down Under’s Keane Fletcher, one of the gay singers in the Ten Tenors
STEVEN LINDSEY | Contributing Writer
stevencraiglindsey@me.com
There are Ten Tenors, but one who we find totally swoon-worthy: Keane Fletcher, a gay 25-year-old Aussie who sings like an angel. And the Ten Tenors is a great place to be a gay man.
“I read an article where it said that 30 percent of the group is gay. Does that mean three out of the 10 tenors are gay, or just bits and pieces of us all — like my toes, someone else’s neck, an armpit or two? That would make sense. Some of the straight guys in the group are the campiest ones of the lot,” Fletcher jokes.
For as long as Fletcher can remember, being in front of an audience was all he wanted to do, even though singing itself came much later.
“I was always into performing. I did all the school plays, I was on the debating team — very Glee,” he says. ”Anything I could do to get some stage time. I didn’t start singing, though, until my drama teacher at high school made me audition for The King & I. I got the part and haven’t stopped singing since.”
Before joining the Ten Tenors in early 2010, Fletcher had a starring role in Altar Boyz and the musical Buddy, about Buddy Holly, back in Australia. That’s as close as he’s ever been to Texas — and, he admits, about all he knows about the Lone Star State. But after a year on the road with his nine brethren, he’s looking forward to his Texas debut — and sharing what the group has been famous for since forming Down Under in the mid ‘90s.
“It’s been a very challenging experience. The Tenors have really allowed me to go further with my vocals and have opened me up to different styles of singing that I wouldn’t normally have pursued. That, and touring the world. I’ve visited nearly every continent in the last year. We’ve yet to book a show in Antarctica, but I’ve got my fingers crossed!”
Perhaps even bigger than Antarctica is Oprah — metaphorically speaking. Fletcher says appearing on her show was surreal — the media queen is just as popular Down Under as she is in the states.
“She’s definitely a big deal in Australia!” he exclaims. “She almost seems mythological to some of my friends back home. I’m sure there’s an Oprah religion forming as we speak.”
But what can really be surreal is life on the road.
“The first year with the group I tried to explore every town we visited. Now that I’m older and wiser I’ve learned to pick and choose what I want to see. We got to visit the Teotihuacan pyramids in Mexico City a week ago; that was incredible,” he says. “I’ve had a couple of good nights out on the road, too. In Toronto last December, we ran into some of the cast of Priscilla the Musical and they kept getting us to talk so they could study our accents. Apparently we say ‘no’ really strangely, so it sounds more like ‘noi.’ Who knew?”
The Tenors’ accents may not come through when they sing, but that’s just fine by their legions of fans.
“People can expect to see 10 guys belting their guts out. The biggest misconception is that all we sing is classical repertoire. I would say our show is more like a rock concert with suits. Or a classical concert with electric guitars. It’s classo-rock. Or maybe just cl’ock,” Fletcher says.
Perhaps most of all, he wants the LGBT community to come makes some noise.
“We love our gay fans, except they tend to be a little quiet,” he says. “It’s not until they get to the [autograph] signing line that they go berserk. I want to see people dancing in the aisles. And screaming, there is definitely not enough screaming.”
Consider the challenge accepted.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition Feb. 18, 2011.
