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Seattle Men’s Chorus

If you have never seen Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), see them this holiday season. If you’ve seen them before, see them again. I attend annually, and last night’s Seattle show at Key Arena was by far the best they have been. It was 2 1/2 hours of Wow. Actually, I used other interjections that I won’t enumerate now. See this gang for its powerful musicianship, expert vocals, impressive pyrotechnics and brilliant theatrics.

TSO’s goal is to make audiences leave “dumbfounded”, and they succeeded last night. An older gentleman in the audience actually had a “medical emergency” from the excitement and had to be removed by wheelchair by paramedics! He recovered today.

I threw off last night’s black skull and crossbones t-shirt and black boots to don my gay holiday apparel for this afternoon’s Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC) matinee at Benaroya Hall.  These guys, all 250-ish of them, never cease to impress me with their innovation and cohesion. For their 32nd season opener, the group welcomed hometown girl, Broadway and TV star Megan Hilty, as the guest artist for the opening weekend of their holiday offering Cool Yule: The Big Band Theory. The star of a new NBC TV show by Steven Spielberg on the way (Smash), Hilty captivated the audience with four holiday and show tunes. Nine SMC holiday shows, running November 26 – December 22, 2011 are a must-see for the season.