Fans of the Fab Four can wax nostalgic tenfold when Voices in Harmony, a 40-man barbershop-style chorus, presents its first musical, “Lies in the Attic.”
The award-winning a cappella chorus takes a trip down memory lane–and its first venture into the theatrical performance world–in four Bay Area shows Feb. 21, 27 and March 6.
Cast aside any preconceived visions of men in straw hats or striped suits because the men of Voices of Harmony will be donning London modernist suits, corduroys, tie-dye and other clothes that run the gamut of the Beatles’ fashion and musical phases throughout the 1960s.
Twelve arrangements of Beatles songs, including “Help,” “Yesterday,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “A Little Help From My Friends” and “Let it Be” move along a story about Randall Judick, a father grappling with his angst-ridden teenage son, Sam.
Sam retreats to the confines of the attic to avoid his father’s finger wagging and then discovers dad’s high school yearbook from 1969. Suddenly, Sam has a lot of questions about his father’s past.
Let’s just say those were crazy times and Randall has a bit of explaining to do.
The ghosts of his wild past, portrayed by the chorus and actress Patty Reinhart playing his high school girlfriend, unleash memories of Randall’s own youth. Father and son soon realize they really do have a lot in common.
“Now the table is turned,” said David Cowan, writer and director of the show.
He said the story’s message is still meaningful for today but also walks the audience through the turbulence and passion of the time.
“Many people love the Beatles today even if they weren’t there at the time,” he said, but the show also sums up what it meant to the people of that time.
“It captures the movement of the ’60s,” said Randy Haykin, singer and executive producer of the show. “They are looking at the yearbook, and that’s how it evolves. The music is built around the storyline just like a Broadway show.”
The group wanted to work within the structures of Beatles songs for a few reasons–one of the biggest being that many of the members are huge fans of the Fab Four, as are many generations, including young adults today, he said.
“A lot of the guys in the chorus grew up in the ’60s and ’70s; we were trying to think of what everyone likes,” Haykin said. And it just so happens that the show will premiere 50 years after the Beatles made their final U.S. tour in 1966. “It really came out of a love for the Beatles.”
Voices in Harmony has exhibited an adventurous spirit since it formed in 2006, merging two barbershop groups, Bay Area Metro and San Jose Garden City Chorus. Previous performances show off a diverse repertoire encompassing every genre from jazz to classics to pop.
“It’s not just singing; it’s about the arrangement of the music,” said Voices president Ben Miller. “It produces a sound that everyone recognizes” as barbershop.
That blend of voices is often referred to as “drop dead Fred,” the fifth man or expanded sound.
To achieve this, singers must stay together the whole time, without one person’s voice standing out.
In “Lies in the Attic,” members of Voices in Harmony will sing the Beatles’ best-known songs as solos, octets and quartets, and the chorus will fill in where the guitar and drums are missing.
“You’re trying to be true to the feeling of the song,” Miller said, “but also true to the style of music.”
When and where:
Feb. 21, 2 p.m., Mission City Center for Performing Arts, 3250 Monroe St., Santa Clara
Feb. 27, 2 and 7 p.m., De Anza College Visual & Performing Arts Center, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino
March 6, 2 p.m., Dublin High School Performing Arts Center, 8151 Village Parkway, Dublin
For tickets to “Lies in the Attic,” visit wesingbeatles.com.
