AN OFF-BEAT HOLIDAY SPIRIT
NM Gay Men’s Chorus makes its debut in SF, combining the sentimental with the silly
In its largest Santa Fe venue yet, the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus will begin this year’s holiday performances by combining the sentimental with the silly. “Love and Joy: From Us to You” will be the Albuquerque-based chorus’ debut at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, an upgrade from smaller venues it has performed in for previous Santa Fe shows. Artistic Director Aaron Howe said the larger space gives the around 50-person ensemble a chance to spread its message of equality and holiday joy to a larger audience, and maybe attract some new voices for the group.
“We really have been wanting to go there and make a big impact in Santa Fe,” said Howe. “We have a good following in Albuquerque, and we wanted to expand and draw more Santa Fe people into our community.”
Howe says the show is all about getting the audience into the holiday spirit, but in their own off-beat style.
The first half of the show gives viewers the Christmas classics, like “Deck the Halls” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” alongside less well-known tunes like the Straight No Chaser’s “Christmas Can-Can,” a “fun, silly” parody on the holiday season, and “Baba Yetu,” an African song with Swahili lyrics.
The second half is when Howe says the chorus gets to “let our hair down (and) be a little more sassy.” The tunes include an ode to ugly holiday sweaters — accompanied by a sweater runway show — and a rendition of Ellie Goulding’s hit pop song “Burn,” with altered lyrics to celebrate Hanukkah.
“A lot of words are the same because it’s about letting lights burn (like the Hanukkah story),” said Howe. NMGMC got this version of the song from popular Jewish a cappella group The Maccabeats, whose music video has had nearly 2 million YouTube hits.
“It has a pop, sort of rock ‘n’ roll but holiday sort of thing,” he said about the show. “We’ve ventured into the realm of musical theater and pop music, and showmanship rather than strict choral singing.”
To help the show’s
flow, NMGMC is also collaborating with a local theater troupe for the first time. Albuquerque’s Rumble Productions has created a narrative that plays on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” and which weaves throughout the show and introduces each song.
Rumble’s founder Jessica Wachs said the performance centers around a Scrooge-like character in need of holiday spirit who also gets a social awakening along the way. Instead of visits from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, the ghosts represent multiculturalism, gender roles and feminism, and sexuality and real love.
“Instead of a character arc of being less obsessed with money, he’s becoming more accepting of people,” said Wachs.
Performances continue in Albuquerque tomorrow and Sunday at The Hiland Theater. Tonight’s show begins at 7:30 p.m.