By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal staff writer
Dr. Terry Gordon doesn’t hesitate to say he has a split personality.
Most of the time, he’s a retired cardiologist with a calm demeanor and an engaging warmth. But sometimes he’s a wild-haired Rod Stewart. Or a strutting Mick Jagger. Or both Ike and Tina Turner.
Well, once a year, anyway.
Dr. Terry Gordon as John Lennon for Docs Who Rock.
The Richfield Township resident has appeared as Austin Powers. He’s portrayed John Lennon. He started out playing Stewart and last year reprised the role, this time as a not-so-gracefully aging Rod the Bod complete with a walker, a Foley catheter and new lyrics for Stewart’s Having a Party: “I gotta go to the potty.”
He’s tight-lipped about the persona he’s planning for this year’s show, which takes the stage at 7 p.m. Saturday at E.J. Thomas Hall. The only hint he’d offer is, “This year’s gonna be outrageous.”
Gordon’s acts have been a crowd favorite since the inception of Docs Who Rock in 2004.
At the time American Idol was just getting started, and the Summit United Way had the idea of putting on a similar show that would get physicians more closely involved with the charitable organization. Gordon’s name came up as the ideal candidate to help pull off the show because of his well-known theatrical abilities, said Michael Gaffney, the organization’s vice president of marketing and communications.
The first show was supposed to be held in the basement of the United Way offices, in a space that holds 200 people. Gordon said he suggested moving it to the auditorium of Akron’s Main Library, and the 430 seats sold out in three days. A screen had to be set up in the lobby so an overflow crowd could watch the show there.
The next year Docs Who Rock moved to North High School, and Gordon said the 800-plus seats sold out in two weeks. Ever since then it’s been at E.J. Thomas and has attracted crowds that range from about 1,100 to 1,800.
The show features 10 bands, who earn spots in the competition by submitting audition CDs. To qualify, each band has to have at least one physician who lives or practices medicine in Summit County.
Judges critique each performance in American Idol fashion, complete with the requisite and often hilarious barbs. The winner is determined by a combination of the judges’ decisions, the decibel level of the audience’s applause and, for the first time this year, votes sent by text message from audience members.
The acts aren’t all rock ’n’ roll, Gordon said. There have been concert pianists and folk singers, bluegrass bands and soloists.
Some are purely musical; some are more theatrical. “And you never know until that night,” he said with a grin.
The emcee’s role is a natural for Gordon, who was a thespian in high school and college. In fact, he met his wife, Angela, when she was a customer at a dinner theater where he was working as a singing waiter.
He throws himself into his shtick. “He’s just a consummate performer,” United Way’s Gaffney said.
Gordon said his favorite role was Michael Jackson, a performance that started with a professional dancer silhouetted against a screen. As the dancer moonwalked out of the spotlight, Gordon replaced him onstage, making it appear as though he’d been the one dancing all along.
Gordon’s wife, a theater major in college, has gotten into the Docs Who Rock act, too. She’s played Lola to Gordon’s Barry Manilow in a rendition of Copacabana, and she and her husband once portrayed Sonny and Cher — Angela Gordon playing Sonny, her husband playing Cher.
It’s not the kind of behavior some people expect from a physician.
He admitted good-naturedly that his antics embarrass his mother, who thinks a doctor should maintain a certain decorum. But Gordon believes letting loose onstage is just an extension of the personable way he related to his patients. His highest compliment as a doctor, he said, came from a patient who likened him to Hawkeye Pierce, the caring and wisecracking doctor from M*A*S*H.
Gordon likes that Docs Who Rock shows physicians’ human side. “People see that doctors really are just normal people,” he said.
He also enjoys making the audience laugh. From a medical perspective, laughter releases endorphins, which help in the healing process, he explained.
The show has proved so popular, in fact, that organizations in other cities have imitated it.
To Gordon, that rocks.
DETAILS
Event: Docs Who Rock
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: E.J. Thomas Hall, 198 Hill St., University of Akron
Tickets: $15 or $25, available at the box office or through Ticketmaster
Information: www.docswhorock.com
See more photos for this story by clicking here.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckenridge and read her blog at marybeth.ohio.com.
