Concert review: Seattle Men's Chorus glides from celestial to silly

Time seemed to stand still once or twice during Sunday night's opening of Seattle Men's Chorus' current seven-show run at Benaroya Hall.

Certainly things got very still during an early, ethereal performance of "We Three Kings/Star of Wonder." The nearly 200 members of the chorus, facing the audience, were met by disembodied voices (largely an ensemble from Seattle Women's Chorus) from the back of the auditorium.

The haunting, surround-sound effect (a favorite of SMC artistic director and conductor Dennis Coleman) was the first indication — after a chummy, warm-up set of familiar carols — that the chorus' holiday show this year, entitled "Fruitcake," offers an impressive range of moods, from the silly to the celestial.

That astral vibe returned in "Fruitcake's" second half, in a trio of songs about heavenly bodies. Eugene Butler's "I Cannot Count the Stars" captured that arresting feeling of sudden self-awareness against a canvas big as the firmament. The chorus was equally compelling on Edward Esch and Eric Whitacre's "Lux Arumque," a song that floated like gossamer. Wrapping it up was a touching performance of Maury Yeston's "New Words," a tribute to fathers discovering stars and other miracles anew through their children.

But lest "Fruitcake" get too cosmic or sentimental, there was plenty to laugh at. "Nine Kings," staged by Eric Lane Barnes, found several varieties of kings — including Elvis, Billie Jean King, King Kong and Stephen King (who sang a list of his titles) — crowding the stage to very funny effect.

"The Night Before Christmas...Revisited" was introduced as a tailor-made tune for modern folk with short attention spans. The arrangement kept things hopping every half-minute by constantly re-inventing the song as a tango, a monster movie theme, a Wagnerian opera and what could have passed as an outtake from "The Sound of Music."

Seattle Men's Chorus' musical guest this year, Jennifer Holliday (opening night and Dec. 8 only), shifted the show's gears with a scorching "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and a golden take on Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday."

The svelte performer noted she has lost 200 pounds since receiving a Tony Award as the star of "Dreamgirls" a quarter-century ago, and belted out the self-empowerment theme "I Am Changing" from the Broadway musical.

Less successful, and a little jarring, was Holliday's reappearance in the second half following the chorus' Seattle premiere of "The Promise: A Christmas Miracle." The latter, co-commissioned by SMC and co-written by Robert Espindola and Robert Seeley, is a very fine, nine-song suite about a World War II-era American soldier's Christmas furlough.

Performed with an "Our Town"-like, meta-narrative embrace of life's fragility and lyricism, "The Promise" is a heavy but emotionally accessible piece. Holliday's signature tune from "Dreamgirls," "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," was well-received but a bit diminished coming on the heels of that.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com