Connecticut Gay Men's Chorus - History - 20th Century

20th Century

The first concert given by the CGMC was in 1987. After performing for several years in small venues like churches in New Haven and Hartford, the CGMC moved into larger commercial performance spaces like the Shubert Theater in New Haven and the Bushnell Theater in Hartford under the long-time directorship of Winston Clark, who became music director in the fall of 1992. Clark changed the direction of the Chorus from "standing on risers and singing" to fully staged, fully costumed musical revues, and decreased the politically themed content in favor of more general entertainment in a successful effort to attract a larger audience, including the non-gay community. The Chorus became known for humor, as mentioned in a 1999 New York Times article, “As is customary with the Gay Men’s Chorus, parody rules.”

A major turning point came in May 1995, when the CGMC brought its very successful musical revue, "Victory Canteen," to the Shubert Theater. The revue, a salute to the United States armed forces during World War II, had been performed 7 times at the Educational Center for the Arts, a much smaller theater in New Haven. When it was discovered that the Shubert Theater was available in May 1995, the 50th anniversary of V-E Day, the CGMC took advantage of the opportunity to mount the show there. New Haven’s mayor, John DeStefano, Jr., issued an official proclamation that the day of the performance was “Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus Day.” Many local and state dignitaries were in attendance at the performance, which was the first time the CGMC had ever performed at the Shubert Theater. The show was sold out. Since that time, nearly all of the Chorus’s New Haven performances have been at the Shubert Theater.

Another important event was the composition and debut performance of “Out! The Whole Story”, a full length musical based on the true coming-out stories of various Chorus members. Originally conceived as the second act of a two-act program, “Out!” was expanded into a full-length musical, complete with choreography, and the full-length program was presented as part of the following year’s performance season. A 25-minute version was also presented at the 1996 GALA Festival in Tampa, Florida, to a tumultuous reception. A compact disc of the full-length version was produced, and one song from “Out!”, entitled “I Have Something to Tell You,” was nominated for a Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA) Award in 1998 in the Cast Recording category.

In 1986 the Chorus incorporated as Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. In 2000 the legal name was changed to Charter Oak Performing Arts, Inc. The Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus and CGMC are still used as names under which the corporation does business.