The Gay Men’s Chorus of LA recently announced the performance lineup for its 35th season, which will include a spring British rock ‘n’ roll tribute show, summer concert celebrating gay icon Harvey Milk and upcoming sing-along viewing of “Saturday Night Fever.”
The chorus’s annual “Holiday Spectacular: Festival of Carols” will be held on Saturday, Dec. 14 and Sunday, Dec. 15 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The chorus will present the sounds of brass instruments throughout the performance.
The chorus’s spring 2014 show “God Save the Queen(s) — A Not-So-Proper British Invitation,” featuring British rock ‘n’ roll from the 1960s to today, will include hits from the Beatles, George Michael and Elton John and will take place at The Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood on Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30. It will be the chorus’s first time performing at the venue, located in the heart of Hollywood.
In summer 2014, the chorus will present its 35th Anniversary Concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles. Act one, “City of Angels,” will pay homage to the finest music to rise out of LA. Act two, an oratorio entitled “I Am Harvey Milk,” with words and music by Tony Award-nominated Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (“The Addams Family,” “Big Fish”), will celebrate the life of Harvey Milk from his childhood to his rise as the first openly gay man to hold public office in California, to his untimely assassination. Produced in association with Oscar winner Bruce Cohen (“Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Beauty” and “Milk”), I Am Harvey Milk will star Andrew Lippa as Milk. The 200-plus singers of Gay Men’s Chorus will be joined by guests from five other choruses for a powerhouse performance featuring over 500 voices.
The new season will also include an upcoming sing-along viewing of “Saturday Night Fever” at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Aug. 30; Fred Arens and Jason Duguay’s annual Halloweenie event on Friday, Oct. 25 at the Los Angeles Theatre; a performance on Saturday, Nov. 16, when select members of the chorus will join Vox Femina Los Angeles for its “Songs of Wisdom” concert; the “It Gets Better” Tour, where chorus members will join local communities in Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Nebraska over the course of nine months to get involved in workshops, rehearsals and multimedia theatrical performances in rural parts of the U.S. to bring visibility to LGBT rights and issues; GMCLA’s community outreach programs supporting L.A. youth through Outside Voices (an LGBT youth chorus) and the Alive Music Project (AMP), a music education outreach program for middle and high school students that uses song to create an anti-bullying message, which is in a joint production with Speak Theater Arts and The It Gets Better Project; and the Chorus’s own recognition event, The Voice Awards, to be held in April of 2014.
Directing the shows will be Joseph Nadeau, who was recently announced as the chorus’s new artistic director.
