Melvin Robert last performed with the chorus in 2018. (photo courtesy of GMCLA)

It’s time again for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles to rock the Saban Theatre, with its latest concert “And the Beat Goes On,” this time with a returning chorus member favorite. The show is set to perform on Saturday and Sunday, March 21 and 22, and KTLA and “Extra” host Melvin Robert will be joining.

“I sang with the chorus from 2013 to 2018,” Robert said. “It’s very much a homecoming for me. The experience really was extraordinarily transformative in my life – to be a part of the chorus – because at the point in which I joined, I was really struggling to find community, and more specifically, gay community.”

An Inglewood native who later went to Pilgrim School in Koreatown, Robert had been searching for just the right way to plug into finding community.

“I had friends that were playing in the kickball league and playing at the gay basketball league. And I grew up really athletic, I just didn’t really ever enjoy playing sports, and so I didn’t want to go that route,” he explained. “I googled ‘gay men singing,’ and that could have gone 1,000 different ways.”

After he found the chorus and joined, he knew from the first rehearsal that he had found the right place.

“I googled the address, and it was the same place that I went to elementary school. And I hadn’t been to that campus in 20 years,” Robert said. “But the kicker is, I park my car, I walk onto the school playground from the parking lot … and I literally approach the trash can that I was thrown into when I was 7 years old, the first time I was called a [f-word slur]. I’m not saying it was the same trash can, but in that same place. And I was like, ‘Oh, shoot. This is why the Gay Men’s Chorus rehearses at this school, because you are about to heal this shame and this internalized homophobia that you’re struggling with. You’re about to heal it at the place of the origin.’”

He told himself that “on the other side of the trash can,” there was “love and empathy and compassion.” A child of the ‘90s, even living in Los Angeles and a world where – as he recalls – Ellen DeGeneres had just come out, he thought, “I guess this will be my secret.” But as the years went on, and he went through coming out and finding his footing with a career, Robert discovered GMCLA at just the right time. His television career would start at Spectrum 1, and then extend to KTLA 5 Morning News as entertainment anchor, then “Extra” and appearances on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.” Robert has won an Emmy and was named entertainment journalist of the year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2022.

“It taught me a lot about community and being in community and being of service to the community, because the chorus is very much a service organization – by way of using our voices to uplift the community, and not only the LGBTQ+ community, but the larger community. And it really gave me the wings to fly and go and pursue this career, because it was right as I was transitioning into my TV career. It gave me this sensibility that you have to share your story, and you have to situate and root yourself in all components of who you are. Because that’s your power. We exist at the intersection of all of our identities, and it gave me this confidence and this belief in myself. I never thought I could do that.”

Now he’s back with the chorus, and the timing is just right.

“It’s very much a homecoming, and to do it all these years later, and to do it at the Saban [is pretty cool] … the Saban Theatre was [where] I sang my first solo with the chorus,” Robert said.

The spring chorus concert will pay homage to “the beat, the rhythm, heart and soul of some of the best music ever written,” from Stevie Wonder and the Temptations to “Dreamgirls” and “The Wiz.” Robert will sing “Georgia on My Mind,” the classic Ray Charles hit.

“My grandmother, Vera, loved Ray Charles and I have so many memories of walking in the front door, and that’s playing throughout her house. And so, when they told me, out of all the songs … I felt like it was such a wink from her,” he said.

Robert will be joined with another guest artist, soprano Nicole Heaston, who will sing “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess.”

“It’s a celebration of the impact of Black folks in music through gospel musical theater [and] R&B, so it’s just going to be a spectacular evening,” he said.

For Robert, the concert will be something of a full-circle moment.

“I’m excited to get back on stage. I really am. It’s been a long time coming for me, because I’m an artist. That’s in my heart,” Robert said.

For tickets and information, visit gmcla.org. The March 21 concert will begin at 8 p.m., while the March 22 concert will kick off at 3:30 p.m. The Saban Theatre is located at 8440 Wilshire Blvd.

Melvin Robert can be seen every weekday morning on KTLA. (photo courtesy of GMCLA)