The Santa Barbara Gay Men’s Chorus spring concert at the Lobero Theatre on May 12 began with fanfare as performers charged onstage from the aisles like pugilists into the fray, giving audiences the first view of the evening’s theme. Titled Fight and Flight, the spring concert highlighted battle-cry anthems of strength and perseverance interspersed with songs to lift the spirit. Artistic Director Tim Accurso conducts the choir (with great panache) in renditions of contemporary pop hits and classics from past decades (with a couple of showtunes in the mix), such as this concert’s creative mash-up of “Danger Zone” and “Love Is a Battlefield” (“Love Is a Danger Zone”); the tried-and-true “Over the Rainbow”; even a lovely a cappella version of Lennon and McCartney’s “Blackbird” by a smaller, featured group of vocalists.
Fight and Flight also incorporated choreography (by Marisol Miller-Wave) ranging from simple motions that emphasized lyrics to full routines bordering on theatrical narrative, including the “training” montage for “I’ll Make a Man out of You” from Mulan and a protest march on stage during Neil Young’s “Ohio.”
An interesting aspect of the Chorus’s concerts is that each song is introduced by one of the onstage performers with a blurb that sometimes includes anecdotes or stories to personalize the importance of the song or lyrics and relate them back to the Queer community. In general, this works well — but when presenters run long with excessive narration, it clogs the flow of the performance. Otherwise, the Gay Men’s Chorus concerts are well-developed and provide the right blend of showmanship, fun, and real talk. Keep an eye out for the Chorus’s upcoming events, including the first annual Pride Cabaret in late August. See sbgmc.org.
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