A light evening is always such a positive start to any rehearsal. We began with “Bad Moon Rising”, appropriate after the thunder and heavy downpour that we saw earlier! This was then followed by “Butterfly fly away “, from Hannah Montana the musical, chosen originally by one of the young members of the choir, performed by Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, a real father daughter duet. Quite unusual words but the sentiment is moving and rather sweet. New to us, so always a challenge.
“Can’t help falling in love", sung in the style of Elvis. We start together and then split into 2 parts and it gave us goosebumps. We could go all the way through and it felt prayerful, definitely a keeper. Similarly, “Getting to know you“ is so well known and we take various lines separately then come back together as one. Another slower but moving song (style of Carol King) was, “Will you still love me tomorrow“. We have some great songs in the programme and hope to really do it justice.
“Home on the range”, written a long time ago and covered by many people came next. Most of us knew the title but not the verses that followed. It felt like we should be swaying together as we sang this anthem!
Jungle Book’s “Bare Necessities” came next: we're not all singing at the same time so we need to keep a careful eye on our own part and be ready to jump in with confidence.
“Dancing in the street“ and “Texas Hold ‘em“ put us through our paces and we needed all our effort and breath to get through them both. We had whoops, whistles and claps to put in too - I think we made a reasonable attempt.
One of my favourites next “Best Man”, from Pump boys and Dinettes. It's a musical set on North Carolina’s highway 57, it tells of the relationship between some of the staff who work there.
A great evening, we worked hard, had fun and felt that we are making progress, all we can hope for.
Written by Maria Baxter