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When I first learned that the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) was going to perform a concert in honor of Whitney Houston, I was immediately interested. I love so many of her songs, and since I'll never see perform live (God rest her soul), this may be as close as I'll ever get.
Clearly others were just as interested, because when I arrived at Lincoln Theatre, the line was down the block and around the corner! But we all made it in on time; the show started 10-15 minutes late. I had a seat in the balcony that was all on its own to the side, which was kind of nice! I hadn't been feeling well, so isolating like that (and wearing my mask!) made me feel better about going to the show (I didn't want to miss it!).
The show started with Gabriel Lopez as a soloist singing "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." It was... disappointing. I guess I (naively) had thought that the group would sound closer to the original. No man can sing like Whitney! And the whole group sounded kind of flat. And that was the case throughout the show; transforming the songs through a choir set-up made them sound monotone. Perhaps this is because the key or range of the song had to be changed for men's voices? It was just sad how the life and vitality of these songs seemed to be removed from this performance, which I know wasn't the intent of the group at all.
I also was a little put off by the dance numbers by 17th Street Dance, which is a dance ensemble that is part of GMCW. As a supporter of the arts, I guess I am so used to watching professional artists. It's unfair for me to compare these performers to professionals, since they aren't; they're just doing this for fun. But watching these dancers was like watching kids at a dance recital; they're wearing the costumes and they know the moves, but the timing wasn't on point, and some of the moves weren't done with enthusiasm (more like going through the motions). I understand that they were doing their best, but at times it was hard to watch.
Ryan Smith was the soloist for "How Will I Know," and he had the best voice and showmanship of the day. He was a real performer, both in singing and dancing. I was very impressed! The group also sang "The Greatest Love of All," which I had to learn and perform in middle school, so that brought up some memories! And of course they sang "I Will Always Love You," though I'm not sure why they didn't end the show with that song. I also wonder if they will sing that one during their next show when they honor Dolly Parton, since she wrote it. Two birds, one stone!
During the songs, I enjoyed watching the ASL interpreter. That in and of itself is a performance, too, almost like a dance. And I feel like it can help teach people some phrases in ASL, since songs' choruses naturally repeat themselves. I feel like I could show my boyfriend, "I will always love you," in ASL now! And of course that made me think of "You complete me" from Jerry Maguire (and the sparkly scarves the singers were wearing made me think of Love Actually, when the choir of teachers put on holiday scarves before singing backup to the famous "All I Want for Christmas is You").
In between some of the songs, a few of the performers would give little speeches, which I really liked. Drew Hastie spoke about his depression when working as an anesthesiologist, and he talked about how this group and community helped him. Thomas Reiker told a funny story about dressing in his father's suit and singing in the snow à la The Bodyguard and his father seeing him; Thomas said his father was surprised when he came out, but he reminded his dad of that day in the snow: how could he not know? And Kevin Thomason reminisced about the time he bought a $20 ticket to see Whitney in concert in Atlanta, and remembered how she walked down the aisle next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. He said he's been chasing that feeling ever since; I can understand that!
Here is a video from the local news for a little snippet:
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