In April 2022 the narrator stood center stage at Cadogan Hall to perform 'I Feel Pretty' with choreography alongside 200 gay men as a first-time member of the London Gay Men's Chorus. The chorus had been seen earlier performing 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' at a 2016 vigil for the Pulse nightclub shooting. The group endured the pandemic, long waiting lists, and months of rehearsals before the performance. Joining provided social contact missing after freelancing, producing friendships across diverse backgrounds, including Bradley, raised Mormon in Utah. Choir life included gossip, petty rivalries, theatrical camaraderie, and a shedding of pandemic-era cynicism through fully staged performances.
It is April 2022 and I am standing in the middle of the stage at Cadogan Hall in London. As the pianist plays a plucky staccato intro, it dawns on me that I am about to sing the West Side Story classic I Feel Pretty, with choreography, in front of a packed audience, alongside 200 gay men. This was my first time performing with the London Gay Men's Chorus (LGMC) Europe's largest gay choir.
I had recently gone freelance and I missed the upsides of having colleagues: gossip, after-work drinks and trivial office grudges. Looking back to my first rehearsal, when I had to wear a name tag to identify myself, I couldn't have predicted how many friends I would make, often with people I wouldn't have encountered in my social circle. One of my choir besties, Bradley, was raised as a Mormon in Utah.
When I joined the choir, my biggest fear wasn't the singing, but putting myself out there. After spending most of the pandemic staring at a screen, I had become jaded by the cynicism that underpins so many online interactions, where being seen to care about anything is cringe. But it turns out that once you have performed a fully choreographed version of Spice Up Your Life assembled on the stage in a Geri Halliwell-inspired union jack formation that fear rapidly disappears.
Collection
[
|
...
]