Patricia McTee Ervin missed being in the sleeper hit movie “Young@Heart” by a year. A relatively new member of Young@Heart, the 83-year-old Ervin joined Northampton’s rocking senior citizens’ choir, which regularly covers “Purple Haze” and “I Wanna Be Sedated,” right after the documentary about the group wrapped.
That’s fine with her. Ervin’s not chasing the choir’s newfound celebrity built around the film: Young@Heart’s Friday show at the Somerville Theatre sold out two weeks ago. She’s after the thrill of the performance.
A 50-year resident of Boston, Ervin moved back to her Austin, Texas, birthplace in 2006 looking to escape winter. She seemed settled, surrounded by old friends and living in a nice condo with a swimming pool. But when visiting her daughter in Northampton last year, she was discovered.
“(Choir administrator) Diana (Porcella) saw me struggling at a post office to get one of those mailing boxes sealed up,” Ervin said from her daughter’s house in Western Massachusetts. “She asked my daughter if she thought I needed help. ‘Oh, no,’ my daughter replied, ‘she’ll figure it out.’ ”
Something about Ervin’s tenacity enticed Porcella (Ervin thinks it might have been her cursing). Porcella brought Ervin to a Young@Heart rehearsal. After a rousing audition of “The Old Grey Mare,” choir director Bob Cilman told her to grab a seat. She was in.
Ervin’s spunk, charisma and tenacity are common to every member of the choir. It’s these characteristics - along with stirring covers of songs by James Brown, the Clash and Coldplay - that made the movie such a success.
First aired on the BBC in 2006 and brought to American theaters in April, the film captures a gaggle of elderly singers preparing for a big gig. What sounds like a filmed joke at the expense of the choir is anything but thanks to the group’s talent and Cilman’s loving-but-perfectionist approach.
“We put on professional pieces with no professionals,” Cilman said from his office at the Northampton Arts Council. “The film is excellent, but it made it look like, ‘Are they going to pull this off? Will it or won’t it work?’ That is never my worry. What was completely accurate in the film was the rehearsal process.”
As fantastic as it is, the film underplays the choir’s huge international following. Since 1996, Young@Heart has toured a dozen times, selling out concert halls in Europe, Australia and Canada.
“One thing the film has done is given us exposure in the United States,” Cilman said. “We played a sold-out show at the Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles this year and did a performance with David Byrne in New York City.”
Now their celebrity is taking hold stateside. Not that Ervin cares.
“Going to Europe is wonderful,” she said. “But touring isn’t easy for us. But when we perform it’s a thrilling experience. To be surrounded by the voices and music, it’s very engergizing. After three hours of singing, I’m ready to climb Mount Tom.”
And she probably would if she had the time. With a tour to finish and a condo in Austin to sublet, Ervin’s future is full.
