Gay Men’s Chorus Presents a Spring A-Cher Gala
This year's GMCW Spring Affair features Cher impersonator Chad Michaels and awards to Sen. Tammy Baldwin and the Wanda Alston Foundation.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington has been celebrating several of the biggest and most enduring gay-loving pop divas this year in its Season of Phenomenal Women. They’ve already toasted the late Whitney Houston, with Dolly Parton being honored next month.
This month, the organization is paying homage to Cher — by way of the performer touted as “the nation’s #1 Cher impersonator,” Chad Michaels. The first RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner, Michaels started dressing up as Cher nearly 30 years ago “kind of on a fluke,” he once told Metro Weekly.
Since then, he’s met and interacted with the diva on multiple occasions, including at her concert at Las Vegas’s Coliseum where he sat in the front row. “She’s real fun,” Michaels recounted years ago. “She’d screw with me from the stage. She knows who I am, so that’s cool.”
The second weekend in May, Michaels will return to D.C. as the featured entertainment at the chorus’s annual Spring Affair fundraising gala, which has been renamed the Spring A-Cher for the occasion. Guests at this “creative black tie” soiree can dress in cocktail attire and tuxedos, or take inspiration from one of Cher’s many “looks, songs, eras, and memorable moments.”
In addition to Michaels’ double-duty as event host and featured performer, the gala festivities include dinner and open-bar reception, live and silent auctions, and the presentation of this year’s Harmony Awards.
The awards are bestowed on longstanding supporters and allies of the chorus and the queer community overall — one award each year designating an individual, another an organization (Metro Weekly was honored with the 2022 award), and the third a veteran chorus member or affiliate.
This year’s recipients include U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay elected member of the U.S. Senate and first woman to represent Wisconsin in the chamber.
The award is in recognition of her tireless pursuit of LGBTQ equality throughout her career as well as her instrumental role in last year’s passing of the Respect for Marriage Act, which formally repealed DOMA and codifies the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages at the federal and state levels.
The 2023 organizational Harmony Award recipient is the Wanda Alston Foundation, for its work in helping homeless and at-risk LGBTQ youth in D.C. by providing transitional living accommodations, life skills training, social services, and educational and employment support.
The third 2023 Harmony Award honors chorus members and couple Timothy Allmond and Robert Klein. Allmond is a 24-year veteran of the Chorus and Robert Klein, who joined GMCW roughly two years after their relationship took root in 1997, has served as Front of House Manager for all GMCW concerts for the past two decades.
Saturday, May 13, starting at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails and a silent auction, followed by dinner and entertainment at 8 p.m. The Ritz-Carlton, 1150 22nd St. NW in Washington, D.C. Tickets are $225 per person or $2,250 for a reserved 10-person table. For an additional $1,500, a “Phenomenal” Upgrade grants tablemates a meet-and-greet with Michaels, premium table placement, unlimited wine, and valet parking. Visit www.gmcw.org or call 202-293-1548.
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