Two former Webster Schroeder students (class of ’74) are teaming up at the Rochester Fringe Festival to perform a funny, fast-moving mini-musical, based on their lives growing up as identical twin brothers.
Jim and John Demler are both opera singers, so the show, which they call My Evil Twin, will naturally include a little bit of opera. But it will be blended with elements of Broadway and pop and (according to the Facebook event page), will “provide the twins the chance to unleash their virtuosic basso voices with madcap energy and emotion.”
The page describes My Evil Twin the show as
an intimate musical …. Funny, poignant, and adventurous, My Evil Twin exposes tenderness and vulnerability beneath masculine bravado as the twins tell the story of their lives in words and song. It is a tribute to sibling love.
Members of the Class of ’74 may remember Jim and John Demler, especially since John wrote they were both “above-average athletes,” albeit only “mediocre students.” They both played in the Ridgecrest Elementary orchestra under the baton of Jeff Frasier, and both went to school not to study music, but to become teachers.
The show we are performing at the Fringe Festival was written for us, and is a funny, brief chronicle of our lives as twins and performers. We have remained best friends throughout our 65 years, but this essentially the first show we’ve ever done where we’ve sung duets together.
My Evil Twin will be performed at the Geva Theatre Center on Wednesday Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m. and Thursday Sept. 22 at 9 p.m. Tickets for the 75-minute show are $18 for adults, $12 for students. They can be purchased online here, by phone at (585) 957-9837 (fees apply), at the door or at the box office at the corner of Main and Gibbs.
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(posted 9/14/2022)
webster on the web 
This is so cool, Missy… how do you find all these great stories?
They actually sent me a press release! I love it when that happens