2010, Part 1: Love Bites, The Roast of Stephanie Lynne Smith, Pride

Love Bites and All That Jazz - The Women’s Building, Feb. 5, 6, 12 and 13. This was the 7th Annual Love Bites and this particular one was an Adults Only show. How shocking! For this show we were 30 strong. For you new people, Love Bites was conceived of as an anti-Valentine’s Day show - no mushy love songs but instead songs of love gone wrong, and all that entails. Act 1 opened with “Ain’t Misbehaving" sung by the whole chorus. The various solos and small group numbers were all very hilarious and some were a bit naughty. There was “The Snake”, "Wake-Up Call”, “Don’t Smoke in Bed” and “Mean to Me.” You get the idea. The chorus closed Act I with “In the Mood.” In Act II our lovely Yolanda DeByle deranged the song “I Only Have Eyes for You” and was sung by Yolanda, John Gullotto, Rodney Martins and Remy Timbrook. We ended the show with “All That Jazz” of course. A fun show for us and our audience.

The Roast of Stephanie Lynne Smith - Rainbow Room at LGBT Center, May 21. This was our chance to roast Miss Smith, as she was affectionately known. There were many solos for Stephanie’s enjoyment as well as people who told stories about her. One thing I remember is that Stephanie did not like the sound of talking sticks. Of course, several of us had talking sticks and played them just to torment Stephanie. But that is what you do at a roast. Way too much fun for the chorus to do this and we hoped that the audience got some of our jokes and references.

The 32nd Annual Pride Concert - The Sound of Fabulous - Mission High School, June 24 & 25. This Pride concert celebrated the 30th Anniversary of LGCSF. At Friday night’s concert State Senator Mark Leno presented the chorus with a 30th Anniversary Proclamation. Our guests for the concert were SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, SFGMC, Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, Voices: Lesbian Choral Ensemble and Cheer SF. This was also Stephanie Lynne Smith’s final concert as our musical director. The songs we sang were “Stacy’s Mom”, “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat”, “Eli, Eli”, “Shenandoah”, “Marybeth” from “Group Therapy” and everyone sang “Never Ever” and “Carry On.” We also premiered a short video highlighting our chorus over the past 30 years. This was one of the best collaborations that our various ensembles had presented at Pride.