Leaving the slot machines and blackjack tables down in Nevada, The Peninsula Singers are bringing the best of Las Vegas entertainment to Sidney next week with their energetic musical concert Centre Stage in Vegas.
“We’re singing music from all the best singers who have performed in Vegas,” says artistic director Glenda Korella.
On the lineup are songs from Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion, as well as classics from Frank Sinatra, Leonard Cohen, and the King himself, Elvis.
“We’ll be singing things like Sweet Caroline,” says Korella.
“The songs are very famous. (The audience) will love hearing them and they’ll love maybe wanting to sing along.”
The choir has also invited Gabriel Macdonald as their feature young artist for the show, a talented baritone graduating from the Canadian College of Performing Arts this spring.
“For this show, it’s a little different,” says Korella. Normally, the choir spotlights a young musician just on the verge of becoming professional, she explained.
“I decided for this show, we needed someone who could really sing broadway show numbers, and this fellow Gabriel is really a good singer.”
Though he’s far too young to have ever seen Sinatra perform live, Macdonald will be giving his all to do justice to some ‘Old Blue Eyes’ favourites, and he’ll also be singing Before the Summer Ends from the musical Dracula, a selection Korella says is “such a beautiful song.”
Channelling the group’s natural energy and the over-the-top nature of Vegas, the show has a little more flair than the average choir performance, she adds, laughing that their opening number might just have a few feather boas to go along with the dance moves.
“The choir has new outfits. It’s going to be really flashy and fun. The songs lend themselves to some fun moves.”
“And we can do it because we know it all off by heart,” she says.
Memorizing all the music and choreography is somewhat of a hallmark of the group, and it’s something Korella says makes the show more engaging for the audience.
“It’s just a really fun show,” she says. “And I think it’ll appeal to a lot of age groups. It’s a musical journey of songs you know, and performers who have done wonderful songs in Vegas.”
Centre Stage in Vegas runs May 1 to 3 at the Charlie White Theatre at the Mary Winspear Centre, 2243 Beacon Ave. Proceeds will go to the Saanich Peninsula Hospital Foundation’s music therapy program.
The singers take the stage Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $13 for children, and are available at the box office, marywinspear.ca or by calling 250-656-0275.
For more information, visit peninsulasingers.ca.
Ticket Giveaway
There’s still time to enter to win a pair of tickets to see the Sunday matinee performance of Centre Stage in Vegas. Email your name, phone number and Elvis’s birthday to reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com by 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 26. A winner will be randomly drawn and notified on April 27.
