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It seemed to be a tradition that would fizzle out during the coronavirus pandemic.
We tried to do a karaoke night in February, but schedules didnt mix.
Then March happened, Katz-Hyman tells me.
We were both thinking about [karaoke] yesterday and started texting.
They devised a plan to host a Zoom event instead.
When I ask to join, Im sent aGoogle docwith instructions.
The event requires using two different platforms.
The first, Zoom, is where well congregate and sing to each other.
The other isWatch2Gether, a platform that allows people to stream videos at the same rate.
(Picture two internet tool windows.
Duets and costumes, the document notes, are encouraged.
There are a half-dozen people already chatting on Zoom when I arrive at 10:30.
Everybody knows either Katz-Hyman or Ryan, but the rest of us are strangers to one another.
The Dixie Chicks rolls into Pulps Common People and then its my turn.
My girlfriend and I have opted for Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way.
Weve been dramatically pantomiming for the past two minutes.
Technical difficulties fixed, we restart the track and do it all again.
Whatelsedo we have to be doing?
Muted, we sing and dance along to each other performers song, a silent but enthusiastic hype team.
More, if you count the roommates and spouses and pets who make cameos in the frame.
I watch two of my fellow guests, Wiley and Courtney, perform a duet of Loathing fromWicked.
Youre a real Adele Dazeem, Wiley, who takes the Galinda parts, tells Courtney when they finish.
Katz-Hyman dons a makeshift wimple and does a number fromSister Act.
Somebody suggestsRent, so we all belt out La Vie Boheme.
Shes in Washington, D.C., where its getting quite late.
After Lauren goes to bed, another woman, Alicia, logs on and requests You Oughta Know.
(Ryan suggests Closing Time, and then, as we all groan, insists he was kidding.)
Im surprised at how quickly the time has passed.
Katz-Hyman proposes making this a regular Monday event.
It feels a little like were all living in the musical interlude of a too-long karaoke track.
On hold until the screen tells us what to do next.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
