Chorale baptizes the Wyly with its first showtunes-only concert in 15 years
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| DO I HEAR A SHOWTUNE? | Turtle Creek Chorale members, from left, Doug Brown, Jonathan Palant, Mack Campbell, Tri Truong and Gene Olvera (seated) represent just some of the Broadway songs to be performed. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice) |
TCC: OFF BROADWAY
Wyly Theatre, 2400 Flora St. May 26–29 at 8 p.m., May 29 at 3 p.m. $20-$65. TurtleCreek.org.
With so many gay men and so many costume changes, the Turtle Creek Chorale must be a bastion of theater queens, and of course they always do an annual "best of Broadway" concert.
You’d think so, wouldn’t you?
"No! We haven’t done a showtunes concert in 15 years," confesses Jonathan Palant, artistic director for the chorale. "And in our 38 CD collection, we don’t have a Broadway album."
Sure, theater and movie songs wind their way into most TCC performances — a gay man can hardly conceive of winter without thinking of Judy singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" — but, no, Palant says. Just not a staple. "It is certainly atypical of a chorus of our makeup."
But this is the season that the chorale becomes the first local arts group to perform at all three Arts District venues: the Meyerson (now 20 years old), the Winspear last year and, for the subscription season-ender, the Wyly Theatre.
"It’s a theater — we need to do theater music," Palant says. "We have a history of opening every concert hall in the Metroplex during its inaugural season, and what better show to put on in the new theater than a Broadway show?"
The concert will be a change of pace for the chorale in other ways. Among them: No dresses! (There will be a locker room scene, though, including a little manflesh.) And the tuxedo’d singers will look a little cooler, riffing off the Wyly’s signature green color scheme.
"It’s a real mixture of heartwarming songs you knew as a child and ones that put a smile on your face," Palant says.
The concert is structured like a Broadway musical, with acts and scenes devoted to particular themes: Kander & Ebb, love songs, 11 o’clock numbers and for the finale, A Chorus Line.
"Michael Serrecchia, who was in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line, is directing the show," Palant says. "We’re even doing the original choreography to ‘One,’" as well as performing other hits from the landmark musical, like "What I Did for Love."
That could make for a singular sensation.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 21, 2010.
