Mighty Oak Chorus invites all to join them for their 41st anniversary musical show “Broadway and the Silver Screen” in Visalia
TULARE COUNTY – This year, the Visalia’s Mighty Oak Chorus is joined by award-winning quartet The Newfangled Four for their annual music show.
The show “Broadway and the Silver Screen” is set to hit the stage April 29 at the Neighborhood Church theater in Visalia, on the corner of Akers Street and Riggin Avenue. Starting at 2 p.m., the show will open with a performance by Mighty Oak Chorus and include features from special guest performers, including one of the top ten barbershop quartets on the globe, The Newfangled Four.
“We had some Broadway songs that we’ve been wanting to do in our shows for years, and this year, we decided to go ahead and use that as a theme,” public relations director Lee Smith said.
Tickets for the show are $20 for adults, $5 for children under 12 and $40 for a family bundle consisting of two adults and children of all ages. The tickets can be purchased by emailing [email protected] or by contacting Bud Case in Visalia at 559-901-4615. Additionally, some tickets will be available at the door.
On par with the theme “Broadway and the Silver Screen,” the Mighty Oak Chorus will perform broadway hits like “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “As Time Goes By,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and more. There will also be performances from the local Some Assembly Required Quartet, Fresno’s Frontline Quartet, all-women’s group Tonally Blessed Quartet and about 80 students from the Valley Life Charter School choir before The Newfangled Four takes the stage.
The Newfangled Four is a quartet from Southern California formed in 2012. According to the group’s website, the quartet combines old fashion slapstick humor with quirky offbeat comedy to merge their talents as first class entertainers and top notch harmony singers. They won the International Collegiate Barbershop Quartet Contest and Far Western District Quartet Contest in 2013, and compete each year in the open International Quartet Contest, where they took sixth place in 2019.
In between shows, during the Broadway and the Silver Screen’s intermission, Smith said after everyone is given a brief break, the chorus’s director will conduct a sing along to give the audience a chance to hit some notes.
“We have three songs published in the programs with the words, so the audience gets to sing along, and people just love that, they like to be a part of it,” Smith said.
The Mighty Oak Chorus first came together in 1982. Over the years, Smith said it has varied in size, having anywhere from 80 members at one time to its current membership of about 30 members. It is a nonprofit organization that has performed a slew of different shows, from doing local concerts and symphonies in and out of the county to caroling at convalescent homes on the holidays.
Smith noted that, as a nonprofit, the Visalia Mighty Oak Chorus would not be able to conduct this performance without its sponsors. He ensured to extend the chorus’ gratitude to its sponsors, which includes A&W Restaurants, Franey’s Design Center and ServiceMaster By Benevento.
