BRIGHTON GAY MEN’S CHORUS: THE ROCKY HOLLY TINSEL SHOW

You can always guarantee that the BGMC will deliver a fun packed evening of song and sketches and especially at Christmas time, and this year would prove to be no exception. Playing to what would appear to be a capacity audience in Brighton Dome Concert Hall, their reputation for serving up a feast of fun has certainly spread far and wide and the gathered throng was definitely in a festive frame of mind and ready for fun.

This year’s them was loosely attached to Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show and it certainly gave them the opportunity for some very camp silliness. I have no idea who came up with the tenuous link between Santa and a cross dressing scientist but it mattered not a jot, and it did give them the chance to play dress-up big time.

They opened with Dear Santa (bring me a man for Christmas) which they delivered with both class and conviction. Then Scared of The Dark , a Steps number that neatly led into the first solo of the evening, an what a solo it was with John McPherson belting out Sweet Transvestite with real vocal power and drama and actually looking scarily right in the role. It wasn’t a role that he played beyond that point rather confusingly, someone else taking over the part and I have to say doing it well, but it did lead to a little confusion.

John McPherson

The comedy interludes peppered the evening, with newly engaged gay couple Brady and Jason, James Waite and Alan Dorrington-Lock breaking down and stumbling upon Dr Franky Claus’s castle and meeting the utterly bonkers incarnation that was Riff Rasta played by Duran Mitto-Duckett. The writing team were certainly having fun with this and Dave Price as Franky was lapping up every lascivious line. Gary Davidson-Guild’s narrator had the gravitas required of the role but also had the fun gift of working alongside the genius BSL interpreter Marco Nandi, a comedy moment for sure. Mad stuff by any reckoning but delivered with real conviction.

But for me the heart of any BGMC concert has to be the music and this now enormous choir is in the very safe hands of Joe Paxton, Tim Nail and Josh Mills, and their programme of mainly pop and seasonal classics was polished and fun. With their biggest membership to date the sound is inevitably going to be huge but that said they are still capable of delivering moments of delicate delight and on this occasion an Ave Maria that proved their ability to go beyond pop.

Of course their repertoire has always contained pop classic and they can belt them out with gusto and do so. But there are moments that they take something and deliver a surprisingly beautiful interpretation, a few years back that was Wrecking Ball, that had the hairs on my arms standing. This time it was George Michael’s Father Figure in a stunningly sensitive arrangement by Tim Nail, quality stuff from the entire team.

And no BGMC concert would be complete without some excellent solos. We Need A Little Christmas was delivered with perfect phrasing and pitch by Rouge Touati-Evans, The Power Of Love with passion by Jessie Ivy-Booth, Never Fall In Love (with an elf) with comedic class by Charlie Bedson and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town with vocal style and strength by Nick Ford. And what energy we saw and heard from  Ben Fowler in his full on rendering of S&M Santa, a real powerhouse performance for sure.

Jessie Ivy-Booth

Rouge Touati-Evans

Nick Ford

Ben Fowler

The ever impressive voices of Rod Edmunds and Andrew Farr this year gave us a beautiful duet from Jekyl and Hyde that proved to be one of the highlights of the evening and in the second half a quartet of voices Alex Morley, Andy Williams, John McPherson and Jonathan Taylor delivered a fun medley of songs in the style of the Four Seasons complete with choreography.

Rod Edmunds and Andrew Farr

And of course no BGMC would be complete without two further elements, first armography which they are now rather proficient in as could be seen as they belted out Proud Mary. Secondly costumes, or should I say playing dress up! The first half saw them in smart black shirts with red braces but after the interval… well some some might say just because you can doesn’t mean you should, but I reckon just because they could certainly meant they should, and how they embraced that Rocky Horror them was a sight to behold, a visual eye popping spectacle of cross dressing delight that looked simply and sillily splendid.

The evening was great, excellent sound quality this year and beautifully lit by Joe Wailes from Theatre By Design.

Andrew Kay

7 December

Brighton Dome Concert Hall

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