“I was stripped of my harp, not singing in a band,” she said on a recent video call. But it didn’t take long for her to embrace this new stage in her stage life: “I just found that this was exactly what I should be doing at this age.”
On Sunday, Caine will be one of several featured performers in Young@Heart’s latest production, “10-Alarm Fire: We Won’t Shut Up!!” Bob Cilman, the group’s longtime director, said that while the group has always been inclined toward social justice, most of that has come through actions — partnerships with groups such as the Pioneer Valley Gay Men’s Chorus, for instance, or performances inside prisons — not words.
But the new show will feature a setlist exclusively dedicated to protest songs. Some will come from familiar names — Woody Guthrie, Marvin Gaye, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Others will follow a Young@Heart trademark — surprise choices (for folks of a certain age, at least) of latter-day songs by artists such as Fiona Apple and Rage Against the Machine.
Caine is set to sing “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next,” a 1998 alternative rock song by the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers. It’s about the fight against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. The chorus first performed that song during a visit to Wales more than 20 years ago.
“The crowd went nuts,” Cilman recalled.
Many of the singers who have participated in the chorus over the years (there are currently 27) have had little or no prior music training or stage experience. Timothy Ranney-Blake is one of them.
When Cilman proposed that someone take the lead on Edwin Starr’s classic Vietnam-era song “War,” “a lot of people turned to me,” said Ranney-Blake, who joined the group a year ago.
“I didn’t see it,” he said. “But it’s my song now.”
For Ranney-Blake, performing with the chorus has given him a measure of fulfillment.
“I have a great number of identities,” he said. “I’m Black. I’m gay. I’m a military veteran, and a grateful person practicing recovery.”
“Coming to the truth about who I am is the fire that brings the energy for this thing,” he added.
Cilman was just 29 when he became involved with the preparation for the very first Young@Heart concert, more than 40 years ago. (He jokes that he keeps pushing the threshold age for the group higher so that he can never become a member himself.)
The first music director quit before the first show, he said. It didn’t go so well.
But then, slowly but surely, some folks with bona fide star power began showing up, including a couple of old-school drag performers and a 90-something Londoner who’d trained at the Old Vic, the repertory company based at the historic theater of the same name. Eileen Hall stole the show in the documentary, singing a sublime version of the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”
The current cohort includes seniors from various career backgrounds, among them a school bus driver, a college professor, a housing advocate, and two bankers. The number of people who have served as members of the chorus is fast approaching 200.
Over the years, the singers have come to see the health benefits of staying active and challenging themselves with new tasks, such as learning songs they’ve never heard before, or songs in a foreign language. (Three of the songs on Sunday will be in Spanish.)
“It really keeps people pretty sharp,” said Cilman. “Not forever, obviously. We’ve had a lot of people with memory issues. But it’s a really good way to stave off those issues.”
Caine said she’s pleased to find herself on the younger end of a group of folks who might be called “super-agers.”
“Every one of them has lived long enough to have fascinating life stories,” she said. “I’m a writer, and I’m interested in each and every one of them.”
“Maybe a little too interested,” she added with a laugh.
The performers agree that their current repertoire feels necessary in the moment.
“This is the first time we’ve done a show where we said, ‘We can’t not address the issues in front of us,’” Cilman said. “We’re going to a place that’s kind of scary for all of us.”
Caine agreed.
“I think collectively we have a sense that we’re actually standing up and doing something to address these times,” she said. “While we might not be standing on corners holding placards, what we are doing is its own kind of activism.”
YOUNG@HEART: 10-ALARM FIRE: WE WON’T SHUT UP!!
At the Academy of Music Theatre, 274 Main St., Northampton, Sunday, Nov. 23, 3 p.m. Tickets: $25 and up. aomtheatre.com
James Sullivan can be reached at [email protected].
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bostonglobe.com ’
