Metropolitan Men's Chorus

Metropolitan Men's Chorus

Group gets inspiration from a TV show for a parody of the Glee holiday episode.

By Cait Brennan

Men's Chorus to present musical based on Glee holiday episode

The Phoenix Metropolitan Men's Chorus is bringing a little glee to the season with its holiday concert, which is a parody of the holiday episode of the Glee TV show.

The concert, titled "Make the Holidays Bright and Gay," will have four performances Dec. 16-18 at the John Paul Theatre at Phoenix College.

"This is a different type of concert for us," said Marc Gaston, executive artistic director of Grand Canyon Performing Arts. "It'll be a full musical with actors playing actual roles."

The play, written by Matthew Paul Ortega, echoes the Glee holiday episode where the Grinch-like Sue Sylvester sabotages the Glee gang's efforts to collect toys for charity.

Gaston said the Men's Chorus' season is centered around the Trevor Project, a national organization dedicated to preventing LGBT suicide. "We've built that into the show, where we're doing a Trevor film project and our ‘Grinch' character tries to sabotage the project," Gaston said.

"Within the play, we're a chorus doing a full holiday concert," he said. "It's filled with all the fun traditional holiday favorites in the Glee style, using many of the Glee arrangements."

The production features 14 actors, 60 singers, a 20-piece orchestra and a crew. Preparations for the show began in August, Gaston said. Desert Overture, the Valley's LGBT community concert band, is providing many of the instrumentalists in the orchestra.

"We're incorporating all our brother and sister groups within our LGBT community," Gaston said. "The leaders of the nonprofits and community organizations are sharing their personal stories of how it gets better."

The concert is inclusive. "We celebrate all of the holidays," Gaston said. "We have a Kwanzaa piece, we have a Hanukkah piece. We're doing a massive version of ‘O Holy Night' with brass, gospel-style.

"The concert ... it really focuses on discrimination in many forms, and the challenges people face in the acceptance of society at large," he said.

The Phoenix Metropolitan Men's Chorus' entire season is built around the Glee theme. "Ever since Glee came out, everybody's been begging to do a Glee year, because the arrangements are a lot of fun," Gaston said. -E

VITAL STATISTICS

Phoenix Metropolitan Men's Chorus
presents "Make The Holidays Bright And Gay"
8 p.m. Dec. 16, 2 and 7 p.m. Dec. 17 and 2 p.m. Dec. 18
John Paul Theatre at Phoenix College
1202 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix
Tickets: $23, seniors $18, children under 12 $10
phoenixmetropolitanmenschorus.org