Vampire Weekend ProfileWell, here's something you don't see every day -- the likes of indie poster boy Ezra Koenig, from Vampire Weekend, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, Josh Groban, David Byrne and Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page (plus a couple of legit theatre artists for good measure), all joining in together for a rousing rendition of Grease's staple drunken-singalong hit, Summer Nights.
But that's what attendees at the Wainwright-curated show If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway, as part of Toronto's Luminato Festival, got to see this weekend gone when the all-male ensemble joined forces for the initially wonky but increasingly impressive finale. Yes, they nail "that" note.
If I Loved You saw Wainwright duetting with dudes on a number of Broadway standards, and, to be honest, the Summer Nights performance is very much all about Rufus and classically trained countertenor Brennan Hall, who dominate the vocal lines with their homages to Travolta and Newton-John, respectively, while the other legends of the stage -- Boy George and Koenig included -- kind of hang around at the edges, looking like they maybe don't really know what they're doing there, even if they are happy enough to be a part of it.
So kind of par for the Broadway course, then.
