North Coast Men's Chorus @ Lakewood Civic 12/14 An Evening in December conjures up all sorts of memories. There will be visual images that bring to mind those persons most dear to us, whether we'll be seeing them soon or not--or only in memory. Of course, there will be wonderful, delicious aromas of holiday goodies, and fresh pine, not to mention the sounds of holiday carols and songs. It's that sort of image that was presented in this year's holiday concerts by the North Coast Men's Chorus, with music director, Rich Cole. This was perhaps the most straightforward (you should excuse the expression, please!) holiday program that the men have presented in the last few years. The emphasis was more on beautiful singing than the sometimes over-the-top production numbers which tend to bring down the house.

That does not equate with dull, by any means: it was as heartfelt as any production could be, which perhaps made the outrageous numbers even more raucous by contrast. Of course, it’s also hard to be raucous while wearing a tux. Still, there were plentiful holiday decorations on stage, as well as colorful lighting changes (engineered by technical director Michael Rich) which added to the overall visual impression. As usual, Robert Day was principal accompanist, while Patrick Wickliffe accompanied the Coastliners, and pitched in as dual pianist on White Christmas. Also adding to the musical accompaniment was percussionist Andrew Pongracz and Adam Tully, string bass.

The chorus opened with It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, and followed that with the title song, An Evening in December, and the traditional carol The Holly and the Ivy. The full chorus sang Rachmaninoff’s Bogoroditse Devo in a cappella style, and the Coastliners did their close-harmony thing with Mr. Cole’s arrangement of The Christmas Song. The first really up-tempo piece Mister Santa came next, with additional lyrics that should cover nearly everyone’s list to Santa!

Of course, this led to a plea by Mrs. Santa (Robert Burian, who has an unbelievable falsetto voice!) to Santa, Won’t You Please Come Back. Santa, in the person of Terence Semenec, had been enticed into extending his overnight trip by the grass-skirted hula dancing girls portrayed by Jerry Hicks and David M. Greene!

Two of the men appeared in touching solos: in the first half it was Dan Bobeczko in Over the Skies of Yisrael, and in the second, Tom Leber put his all into Not in Our Town. During Children Will Listen, several of the men gave testimonials regarding what they heard or didn’t hear as they were growing up, a reminder to all parents everywhere that not only do children listen, but they also remember!

Of course there has to be a big production number to close the first half of the program, and this one followed that tradition with This Special Holiday Presentation (a delightful medley) and This Joint is Jumpin’ and indeed it did with the dancing Elves, wearing red tunics with green-and-white striped tights. Lora Workman did her magic act as choreographer, and four anonymous gentlemen did a fabulous bit of scat-singing!

Over the River in an up-tempo rendition opened the second half, during which we also heard the Coastliners in Christmas Comes Anew and Christmas Angles, plus Grateful. A P. C. Christmas was perhaps anything but, although it was hilarious! Should Tina Fey become tired of impersonating a certain well-known governor from Alaska, the logical successor should be Bryan K. Fetty who brought down the house with his dead-on routine. It was all there, complete with gestures, the hair, the price tag on the sleeve, etc. Not to mention the red, white and blue costume. Anyone who was privileged to witness this routine will long remember her inflection and facial expression as she uttered the words, “All of them?”

After Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, the formal program closed with a marvelous rendition of Silent Night featuring soloist Brandon Bowman. For their encore, the men donned white gloves, as ASL interpreters Doug Braun and Debi Epstein left the stage, and then the entire chorus reprised Silent Night, singing a cappella in both languages: English and ASL. The last verse was signed, only. The silence was awesome, but the ovation was truly deafening!

To discover future delights as provided by the North Coast Men’s Chorus, visit their website: http://www.ncmchorus.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATroadrunner.com
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