"Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive."

-- The Bee Gees

The lyrics never seemed terribly profound. But it depends on who's singing and giving them new meaning.

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'Young @ Heart'

4 stars = Outstanding
Ratings explained

• Rating: PG for mild language and thematic elements
• Playing: At the Manor, Squirrel Hill
• Web site: 'Young@Heart'

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If it's "Young@Heart" -- the New England senior citizens chorus and the title of this terrific documentary about them -- profundity as well as black comedy abounds: Staying alive is a daily challenge in itself. Performing that disco dance song while attached to an oxygen pack is perhaps an even greater one.

Based in Northampton, Mass., the two dozen members of Young@Heart have charmed American and European audiences for years with their unique "reinterpretations" of everybody from James Brown to The Clash.

Left to their own devices, they mostly prefer classical or show tunes. But their devices include a lot of machines and aluminum walkers -- and who wants to be left to those?

The group's longtime musical director Bob Cilman, in any case, has no interest in sweet geriatric versions of "Climb Every Mountain." His own preferences run to rock, punk and R&B. And he picks the music.

At the outset, the chorus is in heavy-duty rehearsals, just two months away from The Big Concert for which they must learn seven new songs. That's a lot of music -- even if it were Rodgers & Hammerstein.

But this isn't easy-listin' Music of Your Life stuff. These are power tunes like James Brown's "I Feel Good!" and Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" and Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can." It's more the music of Cilman's life than of his singers' -- Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, U2, Talking Heads -- and often frustrating for both.

"I'm ready to scrap this one," mutters Cilman after the 15th time his oldsters have battled Toussaint's tricky "Can Can" rhythms -- and been defeated.

Along the way, we meet such memorable characters as huge Fred Knittle (the one attached to the oxygen pack), who performs Coldplay's powerful ballad, "Fix You," at the big gig. Knittle also supplies the film with its best bits of shtick: "We went from continent to continent, until I became incontinent."

Filmmaker Stephen Walker's doc starts out lightheartedly, stressing the heavy irony of song choices like "Stayin' Alive" and David Bowie's "Golden Years." It gets more serious with the unexpected death of one of the chorus' key members. They are informed of it on the way to a concert at the Hampshire County Jail (where one of Cilman's song selections is "This Gun for Hire"!). But the most touching moment of their prison visit -- and the whole film, in my opinion -- is their version of "Forever Young," and the faces of their captive audience. ("This is the best performance I ever seen in my life," says one prisoner afterward.)

Keep the Kleenex handy for that one. But you'll be all smiles for 92-year-old Eileen Hall's fabulous rendition of The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Says that charismatic soloist of her group: "It's all about keeping the brain going -- use it or lose it."

There've been criticisms of music director Cilman for being too demanding and sarcastic with his singers, evidenced by eye-rolling annoyance with the poor guy who can't remember two lines for "I Feel Good!" In fact, the chorus -- hilariously -- never got all the way through "I Feel Good!" until the performance itself.

Cilman is a taskmaster, indeed, which is why he and they are so good. More than a little toughness is required on his and everyone's part -- musically and emotionally -- knowing people in their midst are going to die.

That is the nature and the occupational hazard of the professional experience this extraordinarily wonderful man is preparing them for. I hope he's in charge of the music program at my old-folks' home.

Cilman deserves a film of his own. No, on second thought, "Young@Heart" is it. Like their big final performance, it's a triumph -- funny, inspirational, poignant. How miraculous to watch the ravages of age disappear before your very ears.