End of the Rainbow

He’s almost embarrassed to admit it, but for the first time in Ben Riggs’s career, he’s going to lead the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus in a rendition of “Over the Rainbow.”

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More About

• Cyndi Lauper
• Langston Hughes
• United Methodist Church
• Culture Center

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“It’s possible that in the first ten years of the gay men’s chorus movement, back in the ’80s, ‘Over the Rainbow’ was done at every single concert,” Riggs explains. “It became very connected to gay men’s chorus.” But with the chorus’s spring concert, The Road Home, “it just felt like a real genuine moment to have it,” says artistic director Riggs — especially because the song will follow Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” which ends with the line “True colors are beautiful like a rainbow.” “It didn’t seem corny,” Riggs says. “It gave ‘Rainbow’ a new perspective.”

The first half of the program will feature such pieces of Americana as “Shenandoah,” jazz poems by Langston Hughes and Ragtime’s “Wheels of a Dream.” “It all speaks to the theme of looking for a place to belong,” Riggs says, “of living in a place where you have the freedom to be who you are.” The second half is a bit lighter, with the jazz standard “Come Fly With Me” as well as “True Colors” and “Over the Rainbow,” among others.

The Denver Gay Men’s Chorus will present The Road Home at 7:30 p.m. today and tomorrow at the L2 Arts & Culture Center, 1477 Columbine Street; a 2 p.m. Sunday performance takes place at St. Andrew United Methodist Church, 3350 East White Bay Drive in Highlands Ranch. Admission is $22, $18 for students, and free for those twelve and under; get more information at www.rmarts.org/dgmc.php or by calling 303-325-3959.
May 6-7, 7:30 p.m., 2011