From One Fine Day to It’s Too Late, the Vernon Community Music School’s Glee Club is about to pay tribute to one of the most successful female songwriters of the 20th century.
Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King, staging Dec. 28 to 30 at Powerhouse Theatre, features Glee Club members, and a few special guests, performing some of King’s greatest hits, including many from her 1971 Grammy winning album Tapestry.
“Carole King has always been one of my favourite artists and, of course, her Tapestry album has been and still is full of memorable songs,” said Glee Club director Therese Parent. “Her music is full of poetic imagery. You can hear her life story through her music, full of love and loss, but always hopeful.”
The Tapestry Revisited performance is also a revival of the VCMS Glee Club, whose last theatrical production was in 2012 when it paid tribute to The Beatles (Across the Universe) and before that to ABBA (Mamma Mia).
“The Glee Club has been busy dancing and singing in preparation and they are ready to once again give our audience an evening to remember,” said Parent. “We are very excited to get on stage and transport our audience once again to a nostalgic time of young love, innocence, and never failing optimism about life.”
King’s music was a natural choice for the Glee Club, which consists of community members who love to get up on stage and share their talents.
With more than 30 pages on the Songwriters Hall of Fame devoted to her, King, who grew up in New York City, wrote many of her early hits with her then husband Gerry Goffin.
Together they saw their songs performed by some of the biggest groups of the ‘60s, including Some Kind of Wonderful (recorded by The Drifters), Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (The Shirelles), The Loco-Motion (Little Eva) and One Fine Day (The Chiffons).
King came out of the shadows, so to speak, when she started performing her own music.
Her second album, Tapestry, is one of the best selling records of all time, and includes many timeless hits.
Those attending the Glee Club performance will hear soulful ballads from the album such as So Far Away and Way Over Yonder as well as (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, which was also covered by soul queen Aretha Franklin.
The Glee Club is welcoming its own special guest artist (for two nights only, Dec. 28 and 29) to perform the song.
“We are once again honoured to have Darby Mills join us. She performed in our last show Across the Universe and agreed to come back again,” said Parent.
There will also be performances of some of King’s classics such as Loco-Motion, and the jazz number Jazzman, and a line dance number to Where You Lead.
“We also have Heather Stranks and Jens Goerner of City Dance performing a number... Heather has been working with the Glee Club on our choreography and what a pleasure she is to work with,” said Parent. “There is something for everyone in this show.”
Accompanying the performers will be the Glee Band, which consists of a few international members, including bass player Dmitry Shultz, who originates from Russia, and Julien Veres on saxophone, who is originally from Hungary. They join Donald Parker on guitar and Ron Epp on keyboards.
“There is nothing like performing with a live band and our Glee members are loving the support of these guys,” said Parent.
As in the past, Dave Brotsky is providing set and lighting design.
“He always provides a visually powerful setting for our singers and audience, and this show is no exception. We also love the intimate setting the Powerhouse Theatre provides,” said Parent.
Proceeds from the show will go to support the Vernon Community Music School.
Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King runs Wed., Dec. 28 to Friday, Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Powerhouse Theatre. Tickets are now available at the Ticket Seller box office in the Performing Arts Centre. Visit ticketseller.ca or call 250-549-7469 to order.