The Audience Voted
Toast of Tampa Show Chorus and CAPRI Quartet Dazzle Spectators in Calgary

By Maggie Ryan, Greater Harrisburg Chorus, Region 19

One group’s package seemed to fit like a glove. The other’s left audiences squeaky-clean and smiling. Between them, Toast of Tampa Show Chorus and CAPRI quartet left Calgary toting shiny International medals and the honor of being the audience favorites for 2007.

Looking back on it, we might have predicted Toast of Tampa would trot out “The Music Man” for its International chorus finals package. Director Tony DeRosa fits the bill with three Barbershop Harmony Society quartet championships to his credit and as a coach to countless choruses and quartets. But Tony didn’t choose “The Music Man.” The idea was hatched before he took over Toast of Tampa in January, 2007. Still, in the end, “The Music Man” chose him.

“We didn’t work on it much until about four months before Calgary,” said Toast of Tampa’s Carol Singleton. “Tony didn’t want to do “The Music Man” because he didn’t think it was strong enough musically, and he felt what we needed to work on the most was our sound.”

Work they did, and as the unit got stronger and stronger, even Tony had to admit it was time to come up with something for the chorus finals, Carol said. Just in case.

“The bulk of the music came in July,” she said. “When we put it onstage [in Calgary] it was maybe the fifth time we had performed the entire set. We did it for the first time at retreat in July, then at a Friends & Family performance two weeks before [International], twice on Friday [before the finals] and the fifth time was onstage.”

One aspect –and a key one– that was built well in advance of Toast of Tampa’s package was its costume. The chorus performed in exquisite period outfits, setting forth a tableau so genuine it might have come right off the Broadway stage. In truth, it sprang from chorus costume chair Ellen Robinson, who worked closely with coaches Debbie Connelly and Erin Howden to deliver the visually stunning performance.

“Ellen Robinson had the vision in her mind,” Carol said. “She wanted the chorus to look like towns people. She started with a color palette and brought in photos of period skirts, dresses and apparel of the time.” Chorus members made the costumes themselves or shopped for items at vintage clothing stores with Ellen supervising all the way.

“We had to bring them in and get them approved,” Carol said. “Several times we came in as a whole, and Ellen would take pictures to see how it all blended together. We were putting our costumes together before we learned the whole package.”
Despite its veteran savvy and a slew of International honors, Toast of Tampa entered contest week in Calgary looking for a solid first round to give it a foundation for the future. Taking home the audience choice award was the furthest thing from the members’ minds.

“We are thrilled,” Carol said. “Everybody is just so thrilled with that award. To go from not even thinking we’d be in the top 10 to winning the audience award was just a thrill.”

CAPRI quartet wanted to show a different side of themselves to the audience in Calgary. The quartet from Harbor City Music Company Chorus in suburban Baltimore, Md., had pulled heartstrings with its finals packages the previous three international appearances. But at their core, these women are goofy, and they were ready to let the world know.

“Singing in the Bathtub” came to CAPRI via a children’s CD from the actor John Lithgow, and it’s only natural that the song would resonate with the quartet. Tenor Nancy Disney has three kids, her sister, lead Jen Kuethe also has three, and bass Maggie Butts has three more, plus nine grandchildren. Not to be left out, baritone Kate Mannherz has, well, she has a parakeet. But even birds can be funny, right?

Maggie took a crack at arranging “Bathtub” a few years ago and the quartet tried it for a while, but it just didn’t click until they sent it off to arranger Gene Cokeroft, who polished it into a package-worthy presentation. With that song in mind, it didn’t take a big leap of imagination to envision all four women in a giant tub, soapy, silly and singing.

But stepping out of their self-imposed on-stage shells, that’s another story.

“We’ve been coaching with Rick and Sue Taylor and they told us we needed to be ourselves, and this is how we are,” said Nancy. “My sister and I have been like this all our lives. Maggie is very witty. She came up with most of the one-liners. Kate just sort of rolls with it.”

CAPRI, which burst into the Sweet Adelines consciousness with a sizzling first-round performance in Indianapolis in 2004, had settled into a niche when it finished eighth in 2005 and ’06. Despite its lofty top 10 ranking, the quartet knew it had more to give its audiences.

“Our first year, we had no expectations, certainly not top 10,” said Nancy. “In that first round we just sang like we had nothing to lose. The next two years we put expectations on ourselves and it wasn’t as fun.”

Going into Calgary, the members of CAPRI made a decision. They were going to have a good time at International, no matter what.
“You just get to thinking too much,” Nancy said. “You starting worrying too much about what people will say, what they will think. Sometimes you have a rehearsal and you think, “Man, that was good,” and then you get backstage and you start worrying …”

In Calgary, CAPRI got out of its own way and had a blast. The audience was engaged in the performance and the energy built. When the wave crested with CAPRI surfing happily on top, the quartet had a little bobble — the sort of hiccup that in years past might have crashed the performance.

This time, they laughed.

“We all just kept singing because, well, you’re there and what’re you going to do,” Nancy chuckled. “You always want to do everything perfectly, and you never do. But we handled it well and now it’s just one more moment to add to our collection of memories.”

Adding new pages to the scrapbook is on the minds of a lot of Sweet Adelines this time of year, and certainly Toast of Tampa and CAPRI are among them. Their leap from eighth place to fifth has pushed CAPRI to a new place, a place where long-held dreams might actually be within reach.

“This is something Jen and I have said to each other since we were little girls, that we want to win crowns together,” Nancy said. “Now that we’re fifth, it makes us think it’s more possible than before.”

In Tampa, the planning teams have been in high gear since returning from Calgary, even while the rest of the chorus took a break over the holidays. “We took a chorus survey and now we’re talking about regional in the spring, and Nashville [in 2009] and what it will take to do well,” Carol said.

What comes next remains to be seen. But this much is certain — it’ll be fun.

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