UP WITH (OLD) PEOPLE

Need a reason to go on living? Make your own kind of music like the Young at Heart Chorus -- now on its international tour -- which was recently featured on the CBS Overnight News.One British reviewer had to say this about the experience.

"...I don't know what they put in the old folks' breakfast cereal in Northampton, Massachusetts... (I'm) watching rehearsals by a chorus group whose membership almost exclusively comprises performers in their seventies and eighties. The oldest is so old - 96! - that she has to appear on video. Have they never heard of bingo out here? ...You wouldn't think it, but it is a sight to marvel at..."

There's a lesson here for the younger set since the Bob Cilman, the company's musical director brought this about himself by "following his bliss...."

"....(Cilman) was a twentysomething council employee in Northampton, Massachusetts, when, in 1983, he took over responsibility for the community's senior citizens' music group. Under his stewardship, the troupe developed a local profile and began to sing baby-boomer tunes instead of the vaudeville standards...."

Their repetoire includes: OutKast's Hey Ya, "tongue-in-cheek enditions of All Shook Up ("My hands are shaky and my knees are weak/ I can't seem to stand on my own two feet") and Stairway to Heaven. James Brown's I Feel Good is on their list even though the soloist once broke his hip while singing it.They recently added Rolling Stones material like Paint It Black for their new show, Road to Nowhere....

The downside -- age may be getting to them, certain health concerns certainly affects their director.

"Touring with them can be terrifying," says Cilman