For nearly 30 years the Seattle Men’s Chorus has entertained Seattle audiences and this season’s Fruitcake does not disappoint. Their concerts on December 7 and 8 featured an amazing performance by Grammy and Tony-award winner Jennifer Holliday.
After losing 200 pounds since the 1990’s Jennifer thrilled the audience by belting out with her powerful voice (that probably didn’t even really need the microphone) like only Jennifer Holliday can. She sang three songs right before intermission that included Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Come Sunday, and I Am Changing. Jennifer Holliday finished the evening with an incredible rendition of “And I’m Telling You, I’m Not Going” that had the audience on its feet before she even finished.
The Men’s Chorus does a funny rendition of “We Three Kings” that actually includes nine kings, three of whom are Elvis, and the other six are a rather unorthodox collection of Billie Jean King, Burger King, King Kong and others.
Sadly absent this year was the powerful performance of the Chorus, along with the group’s longtime interpreter Kevin Gallagher, signing to “Silent Night.” This year the Chorus instead signs to “New Words,” a song from the musical In the Beginning by Maury Yeston.
The Chorus also performs a powerful piece ‘The Promise,’ which is a WWII story of a (gorgeous) young soldier making his way home to his family for Christmas. My mother was with me for the performance and was nearly in tears over this song thinking about her teenage years during WWII back in the 1940’s.
Unfortunately, only the December 7th and 8th shows include Jennifer Holliday but the performance by the Seattle Men’s Chorus by itself is every bit as what you expect from their annual holiday show.
Performances still remain for December 14, 15, 21 and 22 at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall and tickets to the Seattle Men’s Chorus’ Fruitcake start at just $20.
More info about the concert is here.
Here is Jennifer Holliday back in 2007:
