A men’s chorus in full voice is a glorious thing to hear, and Saturday evening’s performance by the North Coast Men’s Chorus didn’t disappoint. The 65 or so men were entirely responsive to their music director, Richard Cole, who maintained his equilibrium in spite of the occasional bits of chaos going on around him. Dressed in tuxedos with cobalt blue tee-shirts, the men—of all ages, all sizes, all colors and all ages sang with one voice. At times there were a solo or duo, or the eight-man Coastliners, a double barber-shop quartet format. Even though this was their 16th season (and this year they presented three different programs throughout the year) at times the men displayed the naïveté of youngsters at their first recital, with tentative smiles and bows at the well-deserved applause. To begin the program, the men came on stage and took their positions on the risers at the back of the stage, for the appropriately-titled One Voice. Seize the Day was then given a rousing, bouncy performance. The excitement level rose a bit in Mambo Italiano when four of the men threw themselves into a spirited mambo, after first moving Mr. Cole over to the side, out of possible harm’s way.
A change of pace was provided by The Prayer (dedicated to Jim Kozumplik, a former colleague who passed away this spring) and Playing for Keeps. Another tribute followed in the first appearance of The Coastliners, accompanied by violinist Betteann Gottleib. This was the touching Loving Arms. Neil Giewont was a charter member and officer of the chorus, as well as The Coastliners, before his death earlier in the year, and in a poignant introduction, his philosophy was stated as ‘you can be anybody you want to be.’ The men sang ‘their friend to sleep’ accompanied by more than a few sniffles from the near-capacity audience.
After We Live on Borrowed Time, the first half of the program ended with a bit of comic relief from the singers in Marry Us and It’s Raining Men. During the latter, Jerry Zak portrayed Mother Nature while a group of his cohorts danced on stage and down the aisles, some of them with umbrellas, along with a fog machine and multi-colored lights reflecting off the large mirror ball on the ceiling, plus streamers and confetti coming down from the ceiling. Choreography was by Lora Workman and technical direction by Michael Rich. After intermission, as a smaller than previous chorus assembled on stage in near darkness, suddenly it appeared that we had been transported to the jungle! Not so, it was merely some of the men stationed in the house, armed with whistles and slides and a variety of portable percussion instruments. A huge tropical sun rose slowly at the rear of the stage, as the lights turned to warm yellow and orange for Circle of Life from The Lion King.
Earlier this month Avenue Q won the Tony award for best musical, and the NCMC showed us why in two separate songs. If You Were Gay featured Don Pedley and Ralph Di Ludovico?, pretending to be puppets (actually, they wore the puppets as headgear) while declaiming—or denying, as the case may be—the fact of the title. Mr. Di Ludovico? made a solo appearance later in the evening to tell us about My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada although he did seem to have a bit of trouble with the geography of that large country!
Never Ever Say Goodbye had both a vocalist and a dancer, while the full chorus then performed But Not For Me, complete with verse. Xanadu was a complete change of pace and mood, as five of the men came on stage in white tees and blue shorts—and rollerskates! They also had silver and blue headbands from which fluttered streamers of silver tinsel. They all stayed on their feet, even while moving Mr. Cole (and his music stand) over to the side, so they could have more room. Twice.
Sir Elton John wrote the music for American Triangle, which was followed by Stephen C. Adams in an impassioned Till We Reach That Day. These two songs plead for an end to violence and hatred in very different ways, but effective, nonetheless.
It Takes a Village was a medley of four songs: Can’t Stop The Music, In the Navy, Macho Man and the ever-popular Y.M.C.A. We had a troup of sailors dancing in the second song, and among the various macho guys dancing to the next piece were a cowboy, a construction worker, a soldier, a body-builder and an Indian Chief. The orchestra was also augmented for this final selection.
After all this joyous stompin’ and shoutin’ the chorus went back to the basics and gave us an encore—Imagine. For the gentlemen of the North Coast? Men’s Chorus, the next appearance will be in Montreal, Canada on July 19th. For information about their 17th season of concerts, or any of their other activities, visit their web-site: http://www.ncmchorus.org from Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz kellytwo@core.com (:divend:)