June has arrived. This is not a drill. June has arrived! Here at KTB Music Theatre Chorus, we're excited/nervous/eager to go - no 'delete as appropriate', either; we're feeling all of it at the same time.
Tonight's rehearsal was our penultimate in the Chorley Theatre Studio before we hit the stage for band rehearsal and finalising seating arrangements. As writing about all 21 songs we covered tonight would turn this blog post into a novella - and also because I refuse to give away our entire set list order before a show - this is going to be more of a vibe check. I will give you this spoiler, though: it's all sounding absolutely brilliant. If we say so ourselves.
It's genuinely so difficult for me to pick out highlights from our near-complete run-through this evening, but I'll give it a try. All of our soloists are going to blow everyone away. We had absolute knockout performances tonight across all of the solo numbers - alphabetically (I'm serious about that 'no spoilers' rule, folks!), that's: "Beauty and the Beast" (the title song from the musical), "Come Alive" (The Greatest Showman), "Oh Happy Day" (Sister Act 2), and "Somebody To Love" (We Will Rock You). Plus, I simply must give a special shoutout to KTB, for really showing us all what it means to "COMMIT!" while filling in for our absent soloists!
There is a bit of an unofficial tradition forming here at MTC to have a last-minute song addition, and this concert is not going to break that mould. I told you in the last blog post that we had a semi-chorus song saved from the cutting room floor, but this week also saw the return of "Hushabye Mountain" (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) for an all-choir piece. This is a calming, but also slightly eerie arrangement that just sort of floats your mind off to somewhere otherworldly. It's going to fit very nicely in the set list.
We (also unofficially) end up setting ourselves some sort of challenge at most of our concerts. Last year, we took advantage of a long instrumental to perform a short section in BSL under the tutelage of our BSL Interpreter. This year, we're going to commit (there's that word again!) to a bit of a challenge on "Oh Happy Day" (Sister Act 2), inspired by our sheet-music-free performance at one of our festive gigs in December. You can't clap while holding a folder. We've tried. So, wish us luck and good music memory!
The feeling in the studio was bright and optimistic, making our high-energy numbers such as "I'm Still Standing" (Elton John, covered in Sing) and "Shake A Tail Feather" (The Five Du Tones, covered in The Blues Brothers) bounce, and making our more chilled out songs such as "Singin' in the Rain" and "Any Dream Will Do" (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat) smooth. There's definitely a wide range of musical atmospheres on show in this year's set list, and we've got some fantastic song transitions.
On the 'general housekeeping' front, this rehearsal was also our first look at the "stands and sits" of it all. There's still time to make adjustments as we go, but the aim is to avoid having us all tentatively popping up in ones and twos in the world's most awkward version of The Wave.
In short? If we're in this great shape now, then it will be even better when we reunite with our full membership for the next - last! - two rehearsals. One of the quirks of being a chorus full of theatre people is that we will frequently 'lose' members to shows and other commitments, and this June has been a doozy on that front with shows taking place just as we finalise our concert work. In particular, we would like to wish all the broken legs to our members taking part in Sister Act with CADOS at Chorley Theatre, and a huge congratulations to our members finishing up their run in Calamity Jane with St Ambrose Players.
Our KTB Social ceilidh evening at the end of June is going to be one heck of a celebration - and it's open to non-members, so come and hang out with us! After you've come and watched our concerts, preferably. Tickets are on sale for our three concerts right now, and we have released some footage of last year's highlights over on our YouTube channel. We can't wait to put on an amazing show for you all, and give you an evening - or an afternoon - of family-friendly music and laughs.
Written by Aeryn Isherwood
