With every chair filled and extra people spilling out onto the stairs, the bright white lights flash on, illuminating the performers as they begin to harmonize in the opening jazz number, “Sing, Sing, Sing”.
The opening night, on Friday, of the 2016 Acapella revue “It Don’t Mean a Thing” sold out. The revue was composed of vocal jazz of the 1930s and 1940s, and it included the PHS Jazz Band, Piedmont Middle School Rockappella group and the PHS Acapella choirs: Men’s, Women’s and Chamber Choir Classes 2 and 3. There are two more shows: Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Alan Harvey Theater.
The performance was a little over two hours with a 10 minute intermission.
“There were parts that were a little sketchy, but overall I think for a first performance, it went really well,” said Chamber Choir Class 3 singer senior Meredith Aebi.
The revue consisted of 39 songs and the PHS Jazz Band performed in five of the songs.
“‘Mister Cellophane’ is probably my favorite [song] because it really brought us all together,” said Men’s Choir singer freshman Will Wolfe. “I also liked our first [song], ‘Coffee (In a Cardboard Cup)’ because there’s jokes and what-not, and I thought it was definitely going to be a crowd favorite.”
Audience member freshman Chelsea Fox said she enjoyed all the songs. She thought the solos and small group numbers went particularly well.
“I liked the choreography for ‘Paper Moon’,” Aebi said. “I just think it flowed really well and I liked how the movements were very melodic with the music and flowed really nicely.”
Director Joseph Piazza choreographed for all of the songs that had dances. Almost every song was choreographed
“As always, the Chamber Choir did really well with their dancing, and the solos were amazing and definitely well sung,” Wolfe said. “I really liked all the choreography in general.”