The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus is keeping the holiday season bright, merry and gay with its new streaming video, “Up on the Housetop,” a playful rendition of the second-oldest secular Christmas song (“Jingle Bells” is officially the oldest). The Chorus is dedicating its performance to “everyone struggling with isolation during the ongoing pandemic,” they say, which is fitting of a song all about bringing the joys of Christmas from home to home.
The video premiered on the Chorus’s YouTube Channel earlier this month and then was part of the City of Boston’s annual televised tree-lighting ceremony, “Holiday Lights,” which you can still catch streaming from WCVB-TV Channel 5 at WCVB.com.
“We just love this song. It’s fun, it’s light, and it captures the sillier side of the holiday season—which is something that we all need right now,” said BGMC Music Director Reuben M. Reynolds III. “We are also delighted that the song will premiere during ‘Holiday Lights.’”
“Up on the Housetop” is the latest in a series of BGMC@Home videos released by BGMC since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the chorus to halt live performances for public health reasons. Using their smart phones and other at-home recording equipment, BGMC members individually recorded their parts in “Up on the Housetop,” and then the whole thing is seamlessly sound- and visually mixed together. Plus the Chorus’s ASL interpreter, Dr. LeWana Clark, works her own magic throughout.
What’s more, you can still catch the Chorus’s holiday half-hour special, “Home for the Holidays,” also originally broadcast earlier this month on WCVB-TV, now streaming via On Demand and YouTube. Check it out at “Home for the Holidays” web page.
The holiday special feature highlights from the the Chorus’s winter concerts throughout the years, and is hosted by Boston’s own Randy Price, the first openly gay TV news anchor in the US and host of Boston Spirt’s weekly podcast, “LGBT in Three,” which you can catch on the Boston Spirit Facebook page via YouTube.
For “Home for the Holidays,” Reynolds says he focused on finding the most truly “uplifting” performances that are inclusive of all holiday traditions, including those that represent the African-American and Jewish experience. Expect moving interpretations of classics like “Here We Come A Wassailing” and “Silent Night,” the latter accompanied with sign language, as well as playful performances of modern music like “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” (from the movie “Elf”) and “Pink Christmas,” a particularly colorful number that features trees awash in rosy lights.
For more, go to bgmc.org.
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