The Rome Free Academy Select Choir presents the Broadway Showcase themed "All American" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the RFA auditorium. The revue style concert, under the direction of Twyla Edwards, will feature soloists, dancers, small ensembles and the choir performing songs in four thematic acts.
Tickets are available from Select Choir members for $5 or at the door.
Songs for the performance were selected to appeal to all ages and the show includes tunes selected in honor of Veterans Day. A video of interviews, recorded by 2005 graduate Bobby Farrell while a student at RFA for the Veteran’s Memory Project, will be shown to the audience before the show begins.
The Select Choir has a proud tradition of being made up of the best vocalists and performers at RFA. The choir has been in existence as an after school performance group for 24 years, first under the direction of Valerie Wood and by Edwards since 2006. The members were selected by audition last June and include: sophomores, Daniel Goewey, Chloe Cardwell, Elizabeth Sylvester; juniors, Taylor Holst, Trevor Cardwell, Brittany Bartlett, Josh Eichhorn, Liz Silver; and seniors, Stacy Spindler, Zach Wade, Amber Jones, Antonio Valdes, Pilar Padron, and Jordon Hoffman. The Select Choir will be accompanied by members of the RFA Jazz Band under the direction of Jake Meiss.
"Preparing these songs for the show was a music history learning experience for many of the students," said Edwards. "Most of the songs were written in the 1940’s and the students were just as excited to learn them as young people in the 40’s were to hear them on the radio or at the movies. The students in Select Choir are real fans of Broadway and musical theatre but I was surprised to find out that most of them had never heard of Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, or Abbott and Costello." Preparing the show has a personal meaning for several of the students as well as they have family members who have either served in the armed forces or are serving.
"Lullaby of Broadway" from 42nd Street opens Act I, Broadway Memories. The act includes a solo performance of "You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun" from Annie Get Your Gun and a group performance of "How About a Cheer for the Navy" and "This is the Army" written by Irving Berlin for his 1942 all-soldier Broadway musical. The soft-shoe melody, "Thanks for the Memory," often sung by Bob Hope for his USO shows is also included in the opening act. "I have a girl’s trio performing the Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, and Nanette Fabray spoof "Triplets" from The Band Wagon" said Edwards. "It’s one of my favorite movie musicals and the song is very clever and funny." Broadway Memories concludes with two songs from South Pacific; the duet "Honey Bun" and "There is Nothing Like a Dame" featuring the men of the Select Choir.
School Days, includes the selections "Little Known Facts" and "Glee Club Rehearsal" from You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. A male trio sings of the favorite school pastime of girl watching in the song "Standing on the Corner" from the musical The Most Happy Fella. The song gained further popularity after being recorded by the Mills Brothers in the 1950’s. The energetic song "13" from the recent Broadway musical hit of the same name composed by Jason Robert Brown has the students dancing and singing about teenage life. His more poignant tune "A Little More Homework," a metaphor for life, concludes Act II.
A digital slide show of recent trips by JROTC to Gettysburg and Washington D.C., prepared by social studies teacher Charlie Clifford, will be shown during intermission. Following intermission the RFA Jazz Voices, a division of the Select Choir, will take the audience back to the 1940’s in Swing Time with the songs "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Sing, Sing, Sing," "It Don’t Mean a Thing," "Billy-a-dick-tick-tack" and "A Tisket-a-Tasket." The final theme of the evening, American Salute, opens with a solo rendition of the famous poem "In Flanders Field," written during World War I by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. Select Choir will close the show with "America’s Song" as recently performed by William, Bono, Mary J. Blige, and Faith Hill at the president’s inauguration and Celine Dion’s version of "God Bless America."
