Etobicoke reigns in glee-match
Defending champions Wexford settle for 2nd place in show-choir contest
The host held the tell-all envelope, dragging out the suspense for five fat seconds. The performers held hands. The theatre vibrated with anticipation.
Peering at the paper, the host took a breath and declared the runner-up: the Wexford Gleeks.
With one troupe remaining, that could only mean one thing. SPLASH, the 32-member ensemble from Etobicoke School of the Arts, took the title at the second annual Show Choir Canada National Championships.
The smartly dressed performers stormed the stage to accept their trophy, coming together in a bouncing, twirling group hug.
“We’re all really excited because we really put our hearts out there,” said Blaire Lorrison, a Grade 12 student at ESA, exiting the stage with flushed cheeks. “It’s just a nice feeling because it’s recognizing our hard work.”
The Gleeks from Scarborough’s Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts took second place, trailing SPLASH by 2.6 marks out of 100.
Having come out on top in last year’s competition after entering as the underdog, the group is fine with finishing second this year.
“It wasn’t about the title,” said Merik Williams, a Grade 12 student at Wexford who won the competition’s triple-threat award. “ESA definitely deserved to win this year. They were extremely professional, extremely talented.”
The show choir showdown saw 13 school groups — all but one from Ontario — vie to be among six finalists, who then competed for the title Saturday at the Sony Centre in Toronto. Launched by two Toronto theatre professionals, the event was spawned by Glee, the hit television show that has made it cool to be a singing, dancing, show-choir kid.
In the first-ever competition last April, the Wexford Gleeks edged out their west-end counterpart, ESA, by a slim 0.66 out of 100. The next-best school trailed by a wide 10-point margin.
This year, the Gleeks and SPLASH were once again the main contenders and they once again put on dramatically different performances.
Wexford, 75-strong and dressed in street clothes, blasted the audience with energy. Full of surprises, Wexford’s performance paired the1930s cantata “Carmina Burana” with Beyoncé’s “Run the World” and included a mash-up of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and Adele’s “Rumour Has It.” SPLASH members, decked out in bowties and 1950s-style dresses, performed a songs from West Side Story, putting their unique twist on the musical’s choreography. The result was a stunning showcase of what judges called dead-on sound and flawless movement. Though you wouldn’t have known it watching them, ESA students performed with a heavy heart. On Friday night, between the preliminaries and Saturday’s day-long workshops and finals, the troupe attended a memorial service for the father of a fellow SPLASH member who died unexpectedly last week. At the service, the group performed a piece from their competition set — an acapella version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Somewhere,” from West Side Story. The emotion carried through to their Saturday performance. One judge, a veteran director/choreographer, declared it one of the finest show choir moments he had ever experienced. Four GTA schools made it to the finals. Unionville High School placed fourth and York Mills Collegiate Institute finished sixth. As the troupes filed out of the Sony Centre, one crew after the other erupted in screaming, hooting applause — for their fellow gleeks.