A Desire For Alteration by Anna Duffy

 

 

A Desire For Alteration

By Anna Duffy

              175 strong-minded individuals come together and sing with the goal of building community, motivating change and commemorating difference. I recently attended the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus on Sunday March 8, 2015 at Groton-Dunstable Middle School’s auditorium. The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus is all male, all gay, and one of New England’s leading and most prosperous community-based choruses. It was founded in 1982, and is directed by Reuben M. Reynolds III.

          The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus was an eye-opening, kid friendly production that expressed the group’s true feelings about being gay in today’s society and society’s definition of different. The chorus sang some of the most well-known and well-loved songs of our existence, including popular Broadway productions such as Wicked and movie sensations with the genre ranging from pop to classical. A few songs were sung acapella, while a skilled pianist accompanied the rest. The men’s voices range from soprano to bass, which impressed me, since most males sing bass or tenor. The theme of the night was thinking good of people no matter what is “acceptable”. Each individual in the chorus has obviously felt they were different and not accepted by society at some point, whether it be now, or earlier in their life, and it was evident through the performance. Also, a humorous skit took place in which gay stereotypes were made fun of before the song “Popular” from Wicked was sung by the group. They are all very passionate about this subject, and you can see that in the way they present the music. Their facial expressions and body language made a strong connection with each song and with what each song is trying to convey to the audience.

            The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus was an inspirational, child-welcoming creation in which communicated the men's feelings about being society’s meaning of different. The connection of the singers to the music was obvious and made the production much more emotional and relatable, the voices were beautiful and mixed, and the message of the performance was relevant to the world and to everybody in the audience in one way or another. I definitely recommend seeing this performance if you want to experience something that is life changing for the good.