Chattanooga Pulse

Longing for the days of Ed Sullivan? The Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra Pops season kicks off this weekend with a concert program called “Stay Tuned”, featuring the acclaimed group of entertainers Five By Design.  “Stay Tuned” is a touring show that Five By Design has performed all over the country; a nostalgic piece of showbiz, where the cameras are rolling and the stage is set for a night of music and comedy hearkening back to the golden age of TV.

Like the best variety shows of the ’50s and ’60s, Five By Design, a vocal quintet hailing all the way from Minnesota, creates their own unique live TV program onstage.  No need for a remote or adjusting rabbit ears, the multitalented Five By Design has it all taken care of.

Their show takes the audience outside a soda shoppe for a rendition of “Sh-Boom” and pits quiz-show contestants against each other for “What’s That Song?”  “Papa Loves Mambo” makes an appearance before a hearty salute to the early days of television with tunes by Bobby Darin, Henry Mancini, and the Gershwins, as well as a toe-tapping medley of classic TV themes.

The five entertainers will take to the skies with a propelling musical travelogue that swings by “New York, New York,” sees the USA in a Chevrolet, visits “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” gives the orchestra a showpiece version of “Hernando’s Hideaway,” and ends in the African rainforest for a breathless rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

Five By Design has performed many of their shows (including “Radio Days”, “Club Swing”, and “Stay Tuned”) with the Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and more.  They’ve seen tremendous success in recent years in becoming one of the country’s leading interpreters of the American popular song.  Rarely performing songs written after 1970, their goal is to “make class cool again one song at a time.”

And apparently they’ve done so. In a day when popular audiences tend to eschew The Great American Songbook and tunes like “The Girl from Ipanema” and “As Long As I’m Singing” are usually relegated to AM stations and hipster coffee shops, Five By Design is comfortable sticking to the musical repertoire of ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s.  According to Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk in The Grand Rapids Press, their approach works wonders: “For style as well as sheer staying power,” he says, “they can’t be beat.”

When Five By Design debuted their act at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., “Stay Tuned” was heralded by the Washington Post as “one of the best National Symphony Orchestra pops performances of the season”—a high compliment for a show playing a venue that is no stranger to the original artists behind many classic standards.

It’s a privilege to have a prestigious group like Five By Design visit Chattanooga and be accompanied by our first-rate orchestra.  The group will hit the Tivoli stage for one night only. “Stay Tuned” is sure to swing as cool and sway as gently as that tall, young, and lovely girl from Ipanema.

CSO with Five By Design: “Stay Tuned”
$19 and up (student tickets available)
8 p.m.
Saturday, September 12
Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad Street
(423) 267-8583.
www.chattanoogasymphony.org