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Rating **** LGMC hang their baubles out for
all to see.
London Gay Men’s Chorus can now legally
drink in the US – huzzah! In other words, 21 years ago this month, 9 members of
the original chorus staged a concert/protest outside Angel tube station (which
they reprised on 10th December this year). So this year’s yuletide
offering from the tuneful tenors is more celebratory than a cracker full of
party poppers.
150 performers harmonise to Christmas
classics like White Christmas and Hail Holy Queen, which is of course done in
the style of Sister Act, complete with a rampaging man-diva to hit the high
notes. Pop songs with a choral edge, like Take That’s Shine and Elbow’s One Day
Like This break up the festive focus, and some softer songs from Joni Mitchell
and Rufus Wainwright take the mood down so we don’t expire from too much tinsel
and brandy.
LGMC invited special guests to join them
including Elphaba herself Rachel Tucker (the musical theatre types wet
themselves over this one) and a representative from Diversity Role Models. DRM
have been working with LGMC to run workshops in schools, helping to promote
tolerance (and musicality) across the UK – imagine Glee, but less gay.
With the Christmas market in full swing on
the packed Southbank, the Queen Elizabeth Hall was the perfect setting to get
you in the mood for Crimbo. These seasonal shows from LGMC have become as much
a part of xmas as The Snowman, over-eating and adverts that take themselves too
seriously. There was a much more mature feeling to this year’s proceedings –
perhaps with their birthday season they feel all grown up – and their
performance at the Paralympics, as well as having a song written especially for
them with lyrics from Mark Ravenhill, is testament to this.
One word of advice though, such a large
chorus shouldn’t really need the level of amplification they had; the
microphone setup meant that sometimes the harmonic balance went a little off.
No need to hide now chaps, throw the mics away and show us what you’ve got.
To learn about upcoming shows, visit www.lgmc.org.uk and check out Diversity Role
Models at http://diversityrolemodels.org. Words by Tim Macavoy
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