John Birchler left Batavia a long time ago, but he's making headlines in Schenectady where he's starring as John Denver in a off-Broadway tribute musical called "Almost Heaven."
Birchler left Batavia to attend college in Albany, and landed a teaching job near the state capitol after graduation. He is now retired.
“I don’t try to sound like him. It’s just a matter of representing his songs in that John Denver musical style. We want to perform the songs and be as faithful to him as we can.”
Birchler is the only identified character in the show, which includes 29 of Denver’s tunes, some of them accompanied by an audio-visual presentation.
“There are no real characters, but I do portray a John Denver-like figure,” said Birchler. “There’s a bit of a narrative thread throughout the show, and that’s me talking a little bit as Denver about different things that happened in his life. Beyond my little dialogue and the music, there’s an A-V component that includes almost 130 images projected onto a screen. In some way, they illustrate the songs and much of Denver’s life.”
