When Roger Christie was seven years old he sang for the first time, and now, at age 70, he’s returning to the repertoire of his youth.
Christie, who for the past decade had been booking singers at Raspberry’s Jazz Café on Gabriola Island, is going from behind the counter to in front of an audience with a program of showtunes from Broadway’s golden age.
Christie and ubiquitous Nanaimo keyboardist Marty Steele have performed their Broadway tribute to mid-century musicals like Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady and West Side Story on Gabriola and in Cedar and Crofton, and on Friday they’re bringing that show to Nanaimo for the first time.
The concert, titled A Broadway Tribute with Stories of the Kid from Toronto Street, takes place at the MGM Restaurant on Oct. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. As musical director, Steele has developed arrangements for the pieces. The duo will be joined by vocalist Jenny Morgan and woodwind player Larry Miller. Also making an appearance is Christie’s 11-year-old grandson Jaiden, who will sing and play solo violin on a piece from Fiddler on the Roof.
Christie said the songs bring back old memories, and he’ll be sharing those memories throughout the evening.
“With Roger’s stories and his reminiscing of his past and his passion for Broadway, it gives it a more personal touch instead of just getting up there and singing a song,” Steele said.
Christie was a “kid singer” in an eccentric musical family and the performances will be interspersed with stories from his childhood in Winnipeg, growing up in a home that was like “a Grand Central Station of characters and stories.”
Christie developed an interest in music early on and discovered he had a natural singing voice when his Grade 3 teacher was auditioning choir soloists. It was at a provincial music festival that he earned praise from an adjudicator and the attention of the producer of an outdoor theatre festival.
“As soon as I got off the stage he came up to me he said, ‘I want you in these shows in the summer,'” he said. “So it was just the year before I’d seen my first show there and even at seven years old I had this inclination to sing and so I couldn’t believe it that a year later, here I am.”
Over the course of the show, Christie will recount his musical past from his dream to sing and early performances, to struggling with losing his voice in the middle of a high-profile audition, to putting his singing largely on hold in favour of career and family and concluding with his return to music and “rebirth later in life.”
“For those older people who wish they could do something later in life, he’s the one to listen to,” Steele said of Christie. “Because he’s done something later in life that he had to put on the shelf and now he’s bringing it back.”
WHAT’S ON … Marty Steele and Roger Christie present an evening of Broadway showtunes at the MGM Restaurant on Friday, Oct. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door; reservations can be made by calling 250-753-3535.
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