Photo from Wikipages.com

For the first time, I went to the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus Holiday Concert at Carnegie Hall. My friend recently joined the group and I happily agreed to come see him in the show. I had a fabulous time!

The show started off with the song, “Sound Sound Your Instruments of Joy”, beautifully sung. They then launched into “Hooray for Holidays” sung to the tune of “Hooray for Hollywood”, which was very cute and funny. Broadway actress Kelli O’Hara joined the men to sing several songs. Beautiful in her looks and her voice, she would have been hard to fault, had she not messed up the lyrics to “Let it Snow”! The first act ended with Santa and Mrs. Claus dancing with elves to “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”.

The second act proved even more lively than the first. After opening with an Arabic song , they burst into “Wassail New York”. This song started like some classic, English carol and then turned into the tune of “New York is a Wonderful Town”, which all the Broadway fans (like myself) appreciated.

For “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, full audience participation was expected. The auditorium was divided into12 sections, each told to stand up and sing when it got to their day. Being in group 10 (as I was in the cheaper seats), I didn’t have to do much standing up and sitting down, but the orchestra was kept busy. Involving the audience matched the playful vibe of the whole show.

After an interesting “Silent Night” which ended in what seemed like 5 minutes of the chorus members silently signing the words (a cool idea, but it went on too long), the singers began a festive finale starting with “You’re the Voice” and ending with “Auld Lang Syne”. I was very impressed with this group and proud of my friend for being a part of it. I plan to attend this annual concert next year, just for the fun of it. I had a truly gay evening!

Related posts:

1. A Moment At Ellen’s - And Now We Give You The Singing Customers
2. Soundtrack for NYC
3. Frivolous things I’ve learned about New York
4. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year…to Commute
5. Spring in Autumn