Komodo dragon at the LA Zoo

The LAIR just opened in March and features more than 60 species of amphibians, invertebrates and reptiles from around the world in a total of 49 exhibits. Visit http://www.lazoo.org/lair/multimedia/ to see the LA Zoo’s humorous commercial campaign for the LAIR, featuring actress Betty White, GLAZA co-chair, and rock guitarist Slash, a GLAZA trustee.

An LA Zoo keeper with a great horned owl

The Tom Mankiewicz Conservation Carousel, which opened last October, features 66 artisan-crafted figures as diverse as a komodo dragon, poison dart frog, clownfish and Sumatran tiger. The vibrantly colorful carousel was commissioned by GLAZA and made possible by a generous gift from Ann and Jerry Moss and by figure sponsorships from individual benefactors. The carousel spins to music by the Police, Go-Go’s, Cat Stevens, Amy Grant, Janet Jackson, Bryan Adams, Joe Cocker, Styx, the Carpenters, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and other recording artists from the A&M label co-founded by Moss with Alpert.

Another LA Zoo keeper on an "Animal Walkabout"

The Sunset Safari event was a wonderful reminder of ways animal lovers can help the LA Zoo.

Join the SAFARI CLUB

Donors to the SAFARI CLUB, which is GLAZA’s premier annual giving society, support the Zoo and have the opportunity to experience events that offer up-close experiences with wildlife and demonstrate the latest developments in zoo research and conservation efforts. Tax-deductible donations to the SAFARI CLUB, which begin at $1,500, have an impact on many levels. Locally, they support the Zoo; globally, they contribute to the Zoo’s conservation and breeding programs.

For information about the Safari Club, please contact Nancy Simerly at (323) 644-4717 or nsimerly@lazoo.org.

A gorilla at the LA Zoo

Sponsor a carousel animal

More than 40 of the hand-carved and hand-painted carousel animals have been claimed for sponsorships, among them Snakes on a Log (GLAZA Trustee Slash and his wife Perla), the Praying Mantis (GLAZA Trustee Holly Robinson Peete) and the Bear Cub (the Elton John Charitable Fund).

A few animal sponsorships remain available; for opportunities, visit www.lazoo.org/support/carousel.

Name an animal

This year, TV Land, which airs the “Hot in Cleveland” TV series starring Betty White, named the Los Angeles Zoo’s new baby orangutan after White’s character “Elka.”  The gift concluded a spectacular string of events celebrating the 90th birthday of GLAZA Co-Chair White, known for her 50 years of devotion to the Los Angeles Zoo and her life-long commitment to animals.

GLAZA’s Animal Naming conservation program allows groups and individuals an opportunity to develop a deeper connection with a Los Angeles Zoo resident while supporting the Zoo’s work to promote wildlife preservation and breeding projects at the Zoo and around the world.  Many animals are available for naming with donations ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 commensurate with the animal species chosen.

For information about the Animal Naming program, call (323) 644-4781.

Two sensational Australian musical acts, Kitty Clementine and Right The Stars, will celebrate their American debut with a concert benefiting Pasadena-based nonprofit Union Station Homeless Services on Wednesday, March 7, at 6 p.m. at the Eden Bar and Grill, a restaurant and community events space located in a stunning, transformed historical church at 175 E. Holly St. in Pasadena. Enjoy great music and food while giving back to the community — all proceeds from the $25 tickets go to Union Station Homeless Services.

To further support Union Station Homeless Services, the Fork in the Road Gang will be hosting a canned food drive from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of Eden Garden the day of the concert. Comprised of local volunteers and guerilla artists Bob Stane, Ken Marshall and Philip Coombes, the Fork in the Road Gang got its name when its members erected an 18-foot-tall fork at the Pasadena/St. John avenues median in 2009. Since then, their Put the Fork in Hunger events have collected more than a ton of food and hundreds of toys for Union Station Homeless Services.

Tickets for the concert are limited and are expected to sell out, so buy your tickets today at http://www.unionstationhs.org/puttheforkinhunger.

Art Night Pasadena

Art Night Pasadena is Friday, March 9, from 6 to 10 p.m. Enjoy a FREE evening of art, music and entertainment as Pasadena’s most prominent arts and cultural institutions swing open their doors. Visit the Armory Center for the Arts, the Norton Simon Museum and Pasadena Museum of California Art. See a performance by Lineage Dance. Or take in some jazz and animated video shorts at Pasadena City College. For a complete list of events, visit http://www.artnightpasadena.org/.

Trey McIntyre Project and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will perform at Disney Hall on Nov. 22. / Photo courtesy of LA Phil

It may come as a surprise to some people, but Boise, Idaho, is a blossoming arts community. That’s where Trey McIntyre Project is based, and as dancer Brett Perry says, “It’s a really cool city, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. It’s a community where we can get out and make a difference.”

During my conversation with Perry via telephone from his home in Boise, it becomes clear that Trey McIntyre Project — a contemporary dance group comprised of five men and five women between the ages of 19 and 34, 12 staffers and founder Trey McIntyre — values a sense of community. It was this inclination to engage that led Trey McIntyre to partner with New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band Creative Director Ben Jaffe for their 2010 Hollywood Bowl debut. Over the past year, the two creative powerhouses have been working together again. On Nov. 22, they will perform their new collaborative work celebrating the distinct culture of New Orleans at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Originally from Indiana, Brett Perry has been with Trey McIntyre Project since it launched full-time in 2008. He started dancing at 4 and landed a hot spot at the Juilliard School after high school. In his senior year, he met Trey McIntyre, and after taking his class, loving it and having a two-hour conversation with the choreographer at Starbucks, Perry accepted McIntyre’s offer to join the Project.

This year, the company has experienced an especially high turnover rate: three new dancers. “It’s exciting because they bring in brand-new energy, movement quality and visions of what they can bring to the dance company,” says Perry.

For their Los Angeles appearance, Trey McIntyre Project will perform two pieces, “Ma Maison” (French for “my house”) and “Sweeter End,” with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Preservation Hall will also play an additional third set of newly composed music.

Trey McIntyre Project and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band have performed “Ma Maison” before — at the Hollywood Bowl last year. “‘Ma Maison’ celebrates New Orleans culture in the sense that they celebrate life after death,” Perry explains. “They are not afraid of death. It also celebrates the culture by bringing in the colors of New Orleans, especially the purples, greens and yellows of Mardi Gras, and we wear skeleton masks.”

“Some of the movement in ‘Ma Maison’ is more pedestrian-like,” says Perry. “Trey spent time in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and in different parades. He pulled so much information and inspiration from what people were doing, how they were dancing in the streets, how they were reacting to the parades and all of the music.”

The Project and the Band have also previously performed the second piece, “Sweeter End” together — in February in New Orleans. It focuses more on post-Katrina New Orleans. “There was graffiti that came out of the post-Katrina era, a big X on a lot of the houses and buildings, and Trey and designer Andrea Lauer were fascinated by this.” In this piece, a big spray-painted X makes an appearance.

“We’ve been collaborating with Preservation Hall for thee years, building a relationship,” explains Perry. “They are jazz legends, the face of New Orleans jazz. Last time we were there for 10 days. We get to see places that tourists don’t get to see, underground bars of the music scene that are off the beaten path. With New Orleans, I’ve never been to a place where you’re walking and out of every single storefront or restaurant or bar there is live music coming out. You can just stand on a street and all around you hear five or six tunes happening.”

For Halloween this year, the Project joined Preservation Hall in New Orleans for the Voodoo Fest. “It’s a whole ’nother crowd and new audience,” says Perry, who is more familiar with traditional theaters than festival grounds. Without a rehearsal with the band, they hit the stage and performed to a lively audience walking, talking, carrying beers and dressed in costumes, in an even louder environment with multiple bands playing at once.

HBO’s “Treme,” which chronicles the life of New Orleans residents three months after Hurricane Katrina, offers insight into the city’s tradition of second line dancing when it’s done after a funeral. People file down the street from the cemetery in a line filled with people dancing and musicians playing upbeat compositions. They say it is performed to aid the dead person’s soul in passing over to the afterlife. The living spectators also have to keep moving to avoid their souls being caught. These beliefs may have inspired McIntyre’s “Ma Maison.” Whichever the sparks, Trey McIntyre Project’s pieces overflow with elements of New Orleans culture, both the celebratory and the sad.

“New Orleans was built in the swamps of Louisiana,” Perry offers. “You’re not quite sure what the next step for that city will be. People in New Orleans know that they’re living in a situation that could potentially not be there in however many years.”

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Trey McIntyre Project will perform Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.laphil.com.

Maya Beiser / photo by Merri Cyr

Glennie and Beiser will perform two individual sets and then come together to debut a new work written for them by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.

Israeli-born Beiser will perform pieces from her 2010 record Provenance, which features work by composers of Iranian, Israeli and Armenian descent, among others, drawing inspiration from the Spanish Golden Age and the multicultural confluence of music, art and culture there — plus, in Beiser’s words, her own “crazy rendition” of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”

Evelyn Glennie / photo by Jim Callaghan

From the world’s first full-time solo percussionist expect a free-flowing program style. Glennie gives more than 100 performances per year worldwide, offering her fans a transfixing, multi-instrumental, dynamic experience. She often performs barefoot to enhance her incredible ability to sense sound through vibration. She has collaborated with Björk and Sting, and she played in the Oscar the Grouch Band on “Sesame Street.”

For tickets and more information, visit http://www.uclalive.org/calendar/event_detail.asp?id=133.

While the grand processional leading up to the Kodak is somewhat less than inspiring, once inside the theater, the visuals improve dramatically. The stage has a decidedly Belle Epoque steampunk-meets-sideshow feel to it with huge yawning clown faces bookending each side. As the hall fills and theatergoers find their seats, outlandishly dressed cast members roam the aisles, camping it up, providing a wry foretaste of what is to come. Particularly amusing was a Betty Boop-type character wearing black-and-white stripes and a thick leather corset to which was attached a revolving drum/skirt encircling her waist that acted as a sort of Zoetrope, revealing an animated scene as she spun the device round and round.

The show proper is divvied up into about a dozen set pieces, halved by an intermission. As is typical with Cirque productions, there is a loose storyline, in this case involving a nerdy Harold Lloyd-style character who yearns for romance with an ingenue who later becomes a movie star. Most of the show is presumably a spin through the fantasy world that he creates in his mind. It is the loosest of narrative frames upon which to hang the real purpose of the show: a nonstop montage of acrobatics, kinetic movement, and general visual overload.

Highlights of the scenes include: cameras, lights and film canisters animate to become dance partners to human characters; a pair of identical twins use the entire vertical space of the theater to perform soaring aerial feats; Chinese acrobats in strange teletubby-esque costumes bend their spines nearly in half; film characters like Barbarella, Tarzan, Spartacus and Hopalong Cassidy flit about the stage during an insane PitchFest; gang members duke it out “West Side Story”-style on trampoline-rigged rooftops against a nighttime Manhattan skyline. It’s mostly all great fun and a truly impressive spectacle.

Each Cirque du Soleil show has something unique about its stagecraft and Iris is no exception. Acrobatics aside, the best conceptual bits involve roving cameramen who record clips of live action as it is unfolding; these images are then projected, often delayed, layered and distorted, onto background scrims, with which live characters then interact. In certain scenes this time- and shape-shifting technique is nothing less than mesmerizing for its beauty and technical elegance, while in others it is used humorously. The beginning of the Film Noir sequence has another wonderful bit of stagecraft with four scrims (top, bottom, left and right) moving simultaneously to reframe a series of apartment windows in a nighttime symphony of menacing drama. Kudos to writer/director Philippe Decouflé, a Paris-based film and stage director, and artistic director Denise Biggi.

Another noteworthy element of the show is the music. Composed by Hollywood film scorer extraordinaire Danny Elfman, it is performed live by computer techs, a percussionist, a cellist, a violinist and even a sitarist situated in the boxes at each side of the theater, providing yet another layer of sensual stimulus. The score lends just the right mix of whimsy, plaintive emotion, and drive to make a superb accompaniment to the visual hijinks of the other performers.

Technically still in previews with an official opening of Sept. 25, Iris has a few glitches — a couple of missed acrobatic moves, a scene or two that went on too long — but these no doubt will be sorted out, and overall it is a worthy inclusion into the canon of Cirque du Soleil spectacles. It is the kind of show where you will say to your companions afterward: “Now that was money well spent!”

Theater at the Broad Stage

When actors we know best from TV and film turn their talents to LA stages, it’s usually a smashing success. If examples over the past few years are any indication — think Center Theatre Group’s production of David Mamet’s “Oleanna” with Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and August Wilson’s “Fences” at the Pasadena Playhouse with Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett — the theatrical offerings at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica seem destined for greatness.

First, Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) directs Menier Chocolate Factory’s “The Expert at the Card Table” at the Edye second stage. Written and performed by sleight-of-hand master Guy Hollingworth, “The Expert at the Card Table” references the pseudonymous 1902 book that revealed magicians’ secrets and offers a tale of mystery and deceit — while dazzling audiences with card tricks. Harris is no stranger to the theater world, of course, but it is also interesting to note that he is a magician himself. The production runs July 13 to Aug. 7. The opening night party is on Friday, July 15, at 9 p.m. (Mix and mingle with the artists after the show at M Street Kitchen! Call (310) 434-3200 for availability.)

Anna Deveare Smith

Like Harris, Anna Deavere Smith (“Nurse Jackie”) comfortably inhabits the stage and screen worlds. She brings her solo show about the human body and health issues to the main stage July 20 to 31. Promising to make you laugh and cry, “Let Me Down Easy” is based on 300 interviews with personalities such as Lance Armstrong, Anderson Cooper and former Texas Governor Ann Richards. The production is directed by Leonard Foglia. The New York Times said of the show: “Ms. Smith is not the kind of performer who wholly disappears into the people she is portraying; she is too forceful a presence for that. Instead she channels their voices through her own, using the specifics of speech patterns more than any fancy vocal gymnastics to let us hear each as an individual.”

Tickets and information: http://thebroadstage.com or (310) 434-3200

Eddie Izzard at the Hollywood Bowl

Of course, there are a million great concerts and events scheduled at the Hollywood Bowl, including fireworks on the Fourth with Hall and Oates, “Hairspray,” and Dudamel conducting Lang Lang, but there’s only one that will make history. Emmy-winning comic Eddie Izzard makes Hollywood Bowl history with “Stripped to the Bowl,” the first solo comedy presentation at the iconic venue, on Wednesday, July 20, at 8 p.m.

Eddie Izzard

Izzard is unquestionably one of the best comedians out there. In addition to stand up, he’s been in movies (including “Ocean’s Twelve”) and TV shows (such as “The Riches”). And it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s making history in LA, since you could say he is something of an expert in U.S. history. Yes, he discovered during his past tours of our fine nation, including “Dress to Kill,” that Americans do not know their own history. Izzard also knows world history and Latin, but don’t feel intimidated. It’s not as if his comedy is highbrow, inaccessible stuff — I mean, he does like to wear makeup and high heels.

Tickets and information: HollywoodBowl.com or (323) 850-2000.

Music in the Zoo

The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) hit on an exceptionally entertaining idea when it started its Music in the Zoo series. Sure, the animals often create their own music, but GLAZA invited some other talented musicians to get in on the fun.

photo by Motoyama, courtesy of GLAZA

Offering the rare opportunity to hear local bands while wandering the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens after hours, Music in the Zoo returns this summer with a couple of great choices on Friday, July 15, and Thursday, July 28. Performances take place from 6 to 9 p.m., and guests can view the animals (like the amazing gorillas pictured here)  until 8 p.m., while enjoying various food and beverages. Picnics are also permitted.

Music in the Zoo – Local Scene Night will feature eight popular Los Angeles indie bands on July 15. The line-up includes Abe Vigoda (post-punk guitar band), Big Search (black metal/bluegrass), Hands (indie rock), Pollyn (atmospheric tunes), Allah Las (garage/psych), Kitten (bluesy, alternative, rock-influenced music), Mini Mansions (psych pop), and HoneyHoney (folk rock).

If none of those bands is quite your style, Music in the Zoo – Classic Rock Night brings cover bands playing music by timeless favorites like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin on July 28.

Tickets and information: (323) 644-6042 or www.lazoo.org

Free Culver City Music Festival

Did somebody say “free”? Yes, the 17th annual Culver City Music Festival presents eight free concerts on Thursday evenings in the intimate City Hall courtyard. The festival opens Thursday, July 7, at 7 p.m.
 (courtyard opens at 4:30 p.m.) with fiery Spanish flamenco and percussion with Incendio, followed by Argentinian rock with Los Pinguos. There are dozens of dining options within walking distance.

The Culver City City Hall Courtyard is located at 
9770 Culver Blvd. in 
Culver City 
(corner of Culver Boulevard and Duquesne Avenue). 
Parking is free underneath City Hall.
 Additional parking is free for the first two hours in designated structures in the Downtown area.
 For information, 
(310) 253-5716 or www.culvercity.org.

Shakespeare Under the Stars

If you like bad guys, Richard III is one of the best — I mean, worst. This charismatic and ruthless villain has political ambitions to take the throne of England and has no qualms about murdering his way to the top. Theatricum Botanicum’s version of Shakespeare’s tragedy plays out under the stars in Topanga Canyon with Melora Marshall and Chad Jason Scheppner alternating in the title role. I didn’t think Richard III — the character and the play — could get any more interesting, but Melora is a woman. Director Ellen Geer explained the unusual casting choice in a press release: “We auditioned throughout the company, and Melora and Chad were the two who were able to create the spell. Richard needs to entrance the audience, to win them over as he makes his Machiavellian plans, and when these two actors read, it was immediately obvious to everybody that they were right for the part. It’s as simple as that.” The production runs July 2-Oct. 2. Snacks are available for purchase, and picnickers are welcome before and after the performances.

Tickets and information: (310) 455-3723 or www.theatricum.com

Feast at the Getty Villa

You already know the Getty Villa, modeled after a first-century Roman country house, is a feast for the eyes. This summer, it offers a literal feast. The J. Paul Getty Museum presents At the Roman Table: A Culinary Adventure at the Getty Villa on Thursday, July 14, and Friday, July 15, from 7 to 10 p.m. First, food historian Andrew Dalby will give a lecture titled “Dining With Caesar: Food and Power in Ancient Rome,” exploring fashionable dinners of 2,000 years ago during the time of Julius Caesar. Afterward, guests will enjoy a four-course gourmet dinner prepared under the direction of Chef Sally Grainger. The menu, inspired by ancient Roman recipes, is rich in meats (sorry, vegetarians!) and designed “to entice adventurous palettes.” $75 includes wine. Seating is limited; reservations are required: www.getty.edu or (310) 440-7300.

Photo credit: Fireworks at the Hollywood Bowl/photo by Fred George, courtesy of LA Philharmonic

The Sunset Safari on Saturday, April 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. will feature a tour of the Elephants of Asia habitat, an elephant training demonstration, animal viewings and keeper talks. There will also be a buffet dinner and live music to help you “express you inner animal.”

Membership in the Safari Club starts at $1,500, a tax deductible gift that supports the zoo and contributes to conservation and breeding programs, which offer hope of recovery for endangered species.

For information, contact Nancy Simerly at (323) 644-4717 or nsimerly@lazoo.org.

Nathan Gunn / photo by Mike Sharkey

When we last spoke with acclaimed opera singer Nathan Gunn, he was performing the title role in LA Opera’s “The Barber of Seville” as well as a recital at the Broad Stage.  Now, he will make his debut at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts March 24-27. Appearing as part of the Cabaret Series in the Samueli Theater, Gunn will sing ballads and romantic songs from his CD, “Just Before Sunrise,” which features music by Tom Waits, Billy Joel and Sting. He’ll be accompanied by a band with guitar, bass and percussion.

Gunn will also be adding tunes by William Bolcolm, Lerner and Loewe, Kern and others. “These are all songs that I love and that mean something to me,” he says.  “One of my favorites that people just don’t hear done anymore is ‘Home on the Range.’”

Gunn was praised by Opera News as a “singer with unmistakable star power,” and The New York Times called him “triumphant” — plus, People magazine (and Stephen Colbert!) recognized his handsome looks. He has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House and the Paris Opera, to name just a few. He has earned rave reviews for his performances not only in operas but also in concert versions of Show Boat and Camelot.

Singing in the Samueli Theater will offer an intimate experience of this award-winning baritone’s incredible voice, and he’s looking forward to the experience. “This kind of venue is luxurious for a person like myself who is used to singing to several thousand people in an audience without a microphone,” he says.

We caught up with Gunn to talk about the opera star’s return to the SoCal area and see what he has been up to recently.

Culture Spot LA: A performance of this sort is obviously very different (for audiences and for you) than an opera. What do you enjoy or see as the advantages of both forms?

Nathan Gunn: Opera has the possibility to reach people in many different ways: through the music, the story, the beauty of sound and words, by movement, incredible sets and costumes, etc. It takes the best of theater and when done properly and well is a very powerful art form. The Cabaret venue is one in which I can tell my story. It’s a way in which I use music to get to know an audience, or rather for them to get to know me.

CS: Do you have any other plans while you’re in California for the Segerstrom appearance?

NG: Well, since my two brothers-in-law are playing in the band (it’s a very musical family), we’re going to be having a lot of family time. I believe the kids have plans to visit Disneyland. I’m just looking forward to making music and to visiting with family and friends when I have some free time.

CS: You previously mentioned that you feel it’s important to create new opera roles and support contemporary composers, and you have the track record to prove it. Have you done anything in the past year, or do you have anything in the works that audiences can look forward to?

NG: There are so many new pieces that I’m involved in that it’s kind of hard to name them all. I’ll be debuting a new set of songs by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer for an event at the Dallas Opera House. Last season I participated in a new opera by Daron Hagen called “Amelia” at the Seattle Opera. I’ve been talking to the Pacifica String Quartet about commissioning a couple of pieces to perform in recital in the next couple of years.

CS: What are a couple of the highlights of your past year, and why do they stand out as the best?

NG: Mandy Patinkin and I have put together a show this past year that is really, really fun. He’s a great artist and wonderful person to work with. We have tons of fun together. This coming month I’ll be singing at the Carlyle Café, which has an incredible history and is something that I’ve always dreamed of doing. Recently I returned from an incredible production of “The Rape of Lucretia” in Vienna. Also, on a personal note, I’ll be performing both “Die Schöne Müllerin” and “Die Winterreise” with my friend and teacher John Wustman to celebrate his 80th and my 40th birthday.

Nathan Gunn will perform at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts March 24-27. Tickets are $72. For tickets or more information: (714) 556-2787 or SCFTA.org.

Greg Proops

Every weekend well-known and up-and-coming comics take the stage at the Downtown Comedy Club.  Hosts Kevin Garnier and Garrett Morris (hilarious original “Saturday Night Live” cast member) do it for the love of it.  And you’ll love the atmosphere they’ve created at their Gallery Row space.  This is not your typical Hollywood all-we-care-about-is-the-two-drink-minimum comedy club.

This weekend (Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m.) Greg Proops appears at the Downtown Comedy Club.  If you ever saw him on the Drew Carey-hosted TV show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” then you know how funny Proops is.

Entertainment, including open-mic and opening acts, starts at 7 p.m.  For tickets and information and a schedule of upcoming comedians, visit www.downtowncomedyclub.com.

The first act of the evening featured a range of interesting works, dip though they occasionally did into the aforementioned camp.  Several opera pieces featured excellent soloists like baritone John Musselman and the engaging, exuberant tenor DJ Pick.  The opportunity for gesture and expression allowed a greater range for the performative singers.  The evening’s conductor, Dominic Gregorio, was finishing his tenure with the group gracefully, and his enthusiasm for the operatic numbers was especially enjoyable.

After a short intermission, a world-premiere commissioned work brought the choir together with electronica musician John Tejada.  “The End of It All” was part house music, part movie chorus, and, though musically somewhat infantile, fascinating.  The interactions between live, organic sound and hyper-produced beats and tones synthesized, at its best, a uniquely pleasing listening experience.

“Baba Yetu,” which introduced the GSA Youth Choir, struck me as odd, but this may be because the tune is used in (if not from?) turn-based computer game Civilization IV.  The “Dance With Me Medley,” with Madonna and Gaga and a great deal of musical mash-up and soul bearing, brought out the best of the smaller ensemble and brought the audience to its feet.  A brief solo from Pasadena City College student Cristie Wilson made the otherwise insufferable “Lean on Me” utterly pleasing — encore for Wilson, if you please?

A semi-costumed history lesson on Harvey Milk did get off on the right foot with the aforementioned and heart-wrenching Sondheim number.  That said, it otherwise felt somewhat clumsily integrated to the singers’ purpose, an obstructive framework for otherwise skillfully chosen songs like “There Won’t Be Trumpets” and Paul Simon’s “American Tune.”  (Barring these details, the Harvey Milk Schools Project is well worth looking into; see below.)

Ironically, the evening’s second-to-last number — one that had as much potential as “Lean on Me” to be made entirely of cheese — was “True Colors,” the Lauper pop-tune from pop songsters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.  The combined choirs — a veritable plethora of ages, aesthetics, and all other visible indicators of individuality — fully embodied the truth that a group of people with a common belief can demonstrate deepest humanity by cooperating in song.  This reviewer did a fair amount of tear drying.

Whether ending the evening with Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There” was total overkill is debatable; there was also a short encore piece.  The truly powerful moments of the evening stood in the unity of the performers, the enthusiasm of the group, and the articulate, happy voice of its executive director, the praiseworthy Hywel W. Sims.  The group is entering its 32nd season, and while there will be a handing-off of the baton, the GMCLA’s capacity for meaningful entertainment is promising.

Notable performances (apart from Pick and Wilson) were ASL Interpreter Jon Maher, USC student Marisa Leigh Esposito, John Tejada, and John Tejada’s intuitive music technology.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles will be performing a holiday concert Dec. 18 and 19 in Glendale, as well as two more concerts in the “Power of 3” season.  More information on this and the anti-bullying Harvey Milk Schools Foundation can be found at www.gmcla.org.