Arts & Entertainment
MCC bids Hughes farewell
Gay church choir joined by GMCW; Chaka Khan and Meshell Ndegeocello also had recent D.C. appearances
Metropolitan Community Church of Washington (MCC-D.C.) pulled out all the stops for its Christmas concert this year but even with another diva in the house — guest singer Oleta Adams — it was still Shirli Hughes’ night, as it should have been.
Shirli Hughes at Saturday night's MCC Christmas concert. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
Hughes, the church’s minister of music (and a lesbian), has resigned and Saturday night’s concert was her swan song after a decade running the church’s music program. It felt as though she decided to go out with a bang — the concert was held at the Lincoln Theater (usually all MCC concerts are held at the church) and there were two big guests: Adams and a healthy fraction of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington which has its own holiday show the weekend of the 16th (go here for details).
That Adams sang beautifully was almost a given. She owned the stage during a three-song mini-set late in the second half during which she accompanied herself on electric piano with her hit “Get Here” and an exquisite cover of Amy Grant’s “Mary’s Song (Breath of Heaven)” that’s also on Adams’ Christmas album. Initially I thought she sounded too muscular for the tender lullaby but she settled into a moving rendition of the song marked by dead-on phrasing and vocal nuance.
And, of course, I know rehearsal time is often either highly limited or non-existent when you bring in a big-name artist, but it was almost tragic to hear the canned backing vocals on her opening number “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” considering the bounty of choral talent that was sitting back stage. Thankfully she joined them on closing song “Joy to the World” (mostly the Three Dog Night version but not entirely), which gave the concert a less compartmentalized feel among its participants which, prior to that, had been totally insular (the MCC choir didn’t sing a note with the GMCW; they’re much different outfits, of course, but some sort of collaboration would have been refreshing).
Natalie Carter, left, accompanied by Shirli Hughes, in red. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
The concert, playing to a packed house, was designed to give the church a chance to show off its abundance of talent. Several soloists — especially Marcia Newbill, Gbenimah Slopadoe, Jeffrey Herrell and Yartumo Gborkorquellie — have pro-caliber voices and could be on Broadway or in Los Angeles recording studios if they wished. Equally good, Natalie Carter’s warm, silky solo on “My Sweet Lawd” was understated yet powerful. And old MCC standbys Lisa Carrol, Tanya Harper and Michelle Lanchester (Hughes’ partner) were each in fine voice. Carrol, who possesses a lovely alto timbre, has excelled under Hughes’ guidance and has found new range in her interpretive abilities. And Lanchester, a soul growler who can ad lib with all the passion and fire of any big-name gospel act, sounded better than ever last night. She has, at times, been hampered by muddy acoustics and ill-tempered mics in the MCC sanctuary but last night the balance was perfect. There were some howling mics here and there, sadly, but they were mostly worked out by the time she came on.
Lisa Carrol (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
Hughes opened the second half with two solos — “Ave Maria” and “O Holy Night,” both of which she’s performed previously at the church. The latter, especially, was lovely and allowed her to show off her interpretive finesse and range to their fullest. They also exemplified, by contrast, what makes Hughes such a rare talent — she can kick back and throw down with the most sanctifying gospel grooves but on her solo selections she proves she’s got great classical sensibilities as well and is undeniably a trained singer. It’s quite rare to find a musician, whether he or she is singing or directing (or accompanying as Hughes also does), who can pull off both extremes so successfully. Though mercurial at times — and she would likely admit to that — she leaves enormous shoes for the church to fill. Music can totally make or break a worship service.
The Gay Men’s Chorus sounded lovely as usual — their harmonies, tighter and more refined (but also more staid) than MCC’s — are undeniably great. Their overall pitch is as precise as a tuning fork. They continue to excel under Jeff Burhman’s sturdy leadership.
There was only one misstep of the evening but unfortunately, in my estimation anyway, it was a huge one — a medley of Hanukkah songs the GMCW closed its mini-set with. While musically they provided the show with a nice change of pace, thematically it was jarring and completely out of place. I’m all for diversity and respect of other faiths especially during the holidays, but MCC is a Christian church and this was a Christmas concert. A few secular songs that were included — a slightly wobbly “Christmas Song” by the church’s string ensemble and a medley of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Merry Christmas Darling” by the GMCW — were fine. And I’m not of the mindset, as are many Christians, that everything performed during a church program has to be explicitly religion in text. Yes, Jesus Christ was Jewish himself, but to include a selection of material that rejects the divinity of Christ at a Christian Christmas concert was offensive. I was probably in the minority on this point though — the number was as heartily applauded as any of the night. It’s a shame, though, as the GMCW has several gorgeous sacred Christmas numbers in its repertoire — much more appropriate would have been selections like the Bass “Gloria,” or the Mendelssohn “Say Where He is Born” or “There Shall a Star” they performed at their own concert last year.
Oleta Adams after the concert. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
But that’s quibbling — overall, it was a great, great night. Kudos to Adams for graciously singing autographs and posing for photos after the show.
I’ve been meaning to blog, too, about two other concerts I caught in recent weeks that are both of considerable queer appeal. Chaka Khan played a tight half jazz/half pop/funk concert during a two-night run at the Birchmere last week. I caught the first show Monday night. And bi bassist Meshell Ndegeocello was also at the Birchmere a couple weeks before (on Nov. 15) for her “Weather Tour,” supporting her brand new album. I interviewed both of them (here and here) prior to their appearances.
Chaka Khan at the Birchmere last week. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
Khan’s was far tighter and more generous. Playing an hour-and-45-minute set, she opened with standards like “I’ll Be Around,” “To Sir With Love” and “My Funny Valentine” before putting her own stamp on a four-song set of Joni Mitchell covers, only one of which (“Ladies Man”) she’s recorded herself. The standouts were the moody — it’s perhaps the darkest song in Mitchell’s entire canon — “Two Grey Rooms” and a highly unusual take on “Man From Mars” that gave her kick-ass band time to solo and jam. You wouldn’t think they’d pick that kind of a song on which to solo — Mitchell’s version is slow and atmospheric — but somehow it worked.
Khan closed her show with several hits — “Everlasting Love,” “Tell Me Something Good” and “What Cha Gonna Do 4 Me” (but not “I’m Every Woman”). She gamely sang an a cappella verse and chorus of “Fool’s Paradise” at a request, and gave her testimony of getting clean during an emotional reading of “Through the Fire.” She was in dazzlingly fine voice — her extraordinary pipes are as bright and strong as they’ve ever sounded. Her voice is a feat of nature — she could blow Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Gladys Knight away with a sneeze and I’m not exaggerating.
Meshell Ndegeocello at the Birchmere in November. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
Meshell, conversely, is almost an anti-singer, an anti-entertainer. She’s much more a funky groove chef than a great singer. Her vocals are wispy and non-committal, but armed with her bass and a tight band, there were smoldering sonic stews being conjured throughout her hour-and-20-minute set. She also does exactly as she pleases. There were no hits (unless you count the one “Plantation Lullabies” song she performed, “Outside Your Door”) and 11 of the 17 songs she did are from the new album. I’m all for artistic license and unpredictability — you don’t go to a Meshell show expecting hits — but even that was, admittedly a bit self indulgent on her part. But she doesn’t care and that’s part of her charm. She did make some small talk and said she was enjoying herself — but she’s so laid back and “chill” it can be a bit polarizing. Nobody expects her to be Wayne Newton, of course, but I mean c’mon — isn’t there some middle ground she could stomach without feeling like a human juke box?
MCC’s set:
1. Andaluza (piano solo)
2. The Christmas Song (strings)
3. Gloria We Sing
4. Hallelujah
5. Amen
6. My Sweet Lawd
7. Emmanuel Medley
8. Jesus Brings Joy
9. Perfect Praise
10. Wonderful Child Medley
11. Ave Maria
12. O Holy Night
13. In the Bleak Midwinter (GMCW)
14. I’ll Be Home For Christmas/Merry Christmas Darling (GMCW)
15. Music of Hanukkah (GMCW)
16. Hark the Herald Angels Sing/Angels We Have Heard on High (Oleta Adams)
17. Breath of Heaven (Oleta Adams)
18. Get Here (Oleta Adams)
19. Carols from around the world — a cappella (various soloists)
20. Joy to the World (MCC w/ Oleta Adams)
Chaka Khan’s set
1. High Wire
2. I’ll Be Around
3. To Sir With Love
4. My Funny Valentine
5. Hissing of Summer Lawns
6. Two Grey Rooms
7. Man From Mars
8. Ladies Man
9. Angel
10. Everlasting Love
11. Through the Fire
12. Tell Me Something Good
13. Fool’s Paradise
14. What Cha Gonna Do 4 Me
15. Ain’t Nobody (encore)
Meshell Ndegeocello’s set
1. Grace
2. Faithful
3. Dirty World
4. A Bitter Mule
5. Bright Shiny Morning
6. Lady Cab Driver (Prince)
7. Outside Your Door
8. Blood on the Curb
9. Feeling for the Wall
10. Chance
11. Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
12. Oyster
13. Crazy and Wild
14. Weather
15. Rapid Fire
16. Don’t Take My Kindness for Weakness
17. Dead End (encore)
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The umbrella LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. held its annual Night of Champions Gala at the Georgetown Marriott on Saturday, April 18. Team D.C. presented scholarships to local student athletes and presented awards to Adam Peck, Manuel Montelongo (a.k.a. Mari Con Carne), Dr. Sara Varghai, Dan Martin and the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Sean Bartel was posthumously honored with the Most Valuable Person Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Television
‘Big Mistakes’ an uneven – but worthy – comedic showcase
In the years since “Schitt’s Creek” wrapped up its six season Emmy-winning run, nostalgia for it has grown deep – especially since the still painfully recent loss of its iconic leading lady, Catherine O’Hara, whose sudden passing prompted a social media wave of clips and tributes featuring her fan-favorite performance as the deliciously daft Moira Rose. Revisiting so many favorite scenes and funny moments from the show naturally reminded us of just how much we loved it, even needed it during the time it was on the air; it also reminded us of how much we miss it, and how much it feels now like something we need more than ever.
That, perhaps more than anything else, is why the arrival of “Big Mistakes” – the new Netflix series starring, co-created and co-written by Dan Levy – felt so welcome. We knew it wouldn’t be the Roses, but it seemed cut from the same cloth, and it had David Rose (or at least someone who seemed a lot like him) in the middle of a comically dysfunctional family dynamic, complete with a mother who gets involved in town politics and a catty sibling rivalry with his sister, and still nebbish-ly uncomfortable in his own gay shoes. Only this time, instead of running a charmingly pretentious boutique, he’s the pastor of the local church, and instead of a collection of kooky small town neighbors to contend with, there are gangsters.
As it turns out, it really does feel cut from the same cloth, but the design is distinctly different. Set in a fictional New Jersey suburb, it centers on Nicky (Levy) and his sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega) – he openly gay with an adoring boyfriend (Jacob Gutierrez), yet still obsessive about keeping it all invisible to his congregation, and she drudging aimlessly through life as an underpaid schoolteacher after failing to achieve her New York dreams of show biz success – who inadvertently become enmeshed in a shady underworld when a gesture for their dead grandmother’s funeral goes horribly awry.
They’re surrounded by a crew of equally compromised characters. There’s their mother Linda (Laurie Metcalf), whose campaign to become the town’s mayor only intensifies her tendency to micromanage her children’s lives; Yusuf (Boran Kuzum), the Turkish-American mini-mart operator who pulls them into the criminal conspiracy yet is himself a victim of it; Max (Jack Innanen), Morgan’s live-in boyfriend, who pushes her for a deeper commitment and is willing to go to couples’ therapy to prove it; Annette, his mother (Elizabeth Perkins), who lends her society standing toward helping Linda’s campaign against a misogynistic opponent (Darren Goldstein); and Ivan (Mark Ivanir), the seemingly ruthless crime boss who enslaves the siblings into his network but may really be just another slave himself. It’s a well-fleshed out assortment of characters that helps our own loyalties shift and adapt, generating at least a degree of empathy – if not always sympathy – that keeps everyone from coming off as a merely “black-and-white” caricature of expectations and typecasting.
To be sure, it’s an entertaining binge-watch, full of distinctive characters – all inhabiting familiar, even stereotypical roles in the narrative – who are each given a degree of validation, both in writing and performance, as the show unspools its narrative. At the same time, it makes for a fairly bleak overall view of humanity, in which it’s difficult to place our loyalties with anyone without also embracing a kind of “dog eat dog” morality in which nobody is truly innocent – but nobody is completely to blame for their sins, anyway.
In this way, it’s a show that lets us off the hook in the sense that it places the idea of ethical guilt within a framework of relative evils, as it permits us to forgive our own trespasses by accepting its “lovably” amoral characters, each of whom has their own reasons and justifications for what they do. We relate, but we can’t quite shake the notion that, if all these people hadn’t been so caught up in their own personal dramas, none of them would have ended up in the compromised morality that they’re in.
However, it’s not some bleak morality play that Levy and crew undertake; rather, it’s more an egalitarian fantasy in which even “bad” choices feel justified by inevitability. Everybody’s motivations make enough sense to us that it’s hard to judge any of the characters for making the choices – however unwise – that they do. In a system where everyone is forced to compromise themselves in order to achieve whatever dream of self-fulfillment they may have, how can anybody really blame themselves for doing what they have to do to survive?
Of course, all things considered, this is more a relatable comedy than it is a morality play. As a comedy of errors, it all works well enough on its own without imposing an ideology on it, no matter how much we may be tempted to do so. Indeed, what is ultimately more to the point is how well this pseudo-cynical exercise in the normalization of corruption – for that is what it really about, in the end – succeeds in letting us all off the hook for our compromises.
In the end, of course, maybe all that analysis is too deep a dive for a show that feels, in the end, like it’s meant to be mostly for fun. Indeed, despite its focus on being dragged into the shady side of life, the arc of its messaging seems to be less about a moralistic urge toward making the “right” choice than it is a candid recognition that all of us are compromised from the outset, often by choices we only force upon ourselves, and that’s a refreshing enough bit of honesty that we can easily get on board.
It helps that the performances are on point, especially the loony and wide-eyed fanaticism of Metcalf – surely the MVP of any project in which she is involved – and the directly focused moral malleability of Ortega; Levy, of course, is Levy – a now-familiar persona that can exist within any milieu without further justification than its own queer relatability – and, in this case, at least, that’s both the icing on the cake and substance that defines it. That’s enough to make it an essential view for fans, queer or otherwise, of his distinctive “brand,” even if he – or the show itself – doesn’t quite satisfy in the way that “Schitt’s Creek” was able to do.
Seriously, though, how could it?
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