{"id":1127,"date":"2022-10-30T16:59:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T20:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2022-10-30T16:59:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T20:59:33","slug":"idina-menzel-puts-on-dynamic-disarming-show-with-cleveland-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-puts-on-dynamic-disarming-show-with-cleveland-orchestra\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel puts on dynamic, disarming show with Cleveland Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

A knockout performance by Idina Menzel one expects. A total lack of pretentiousness on the part of a superstar ones does not.<\/p>\n

Maybe aficionados of Menzel\u2019s work on stage and screen were prepared for the vocalist\u2019s dynamic, disarming manner in her collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra Saturday night at Blossom Music Center. The rest of us were taken by surprise.<\/p>\n

Where many artists in her position might treat a show in Cleveland like a chore, Menzel treated it as a highlight of her career, taking great care not only to entertain but also to connect. With tale after charming tale from her personal life, the star of Broadway\u2019s \u201cWicked\u201d and \u201cRent\u201d bonded with both audience and orchestra.<\/p>\n

The vibe at Blossom was unique from the outset. Long before Menzel strode out barefoot in a billowy, yellow-green gown singing \u201cLife of the Party,\u201d the evening stood apart as the orchestra\u2019s summer-season kickoff and a benefit for its new audience-development ministry, the Center for Future Audiences.<\/p>\n

The orchestra also used the occasion to announce million-dollar gifts from five local companies and present the first of three fireworks displays at Blossom over Independence Day weekend. Thankfully for the throngs who\u2019d packed the lawn Saturday, the weather held out.<\/p>\n

Guest conductor Steven Reineke, the Ohio-born director of the New York Pops, also set a festive tone early on, stocking the brief, orchestral first half with two of his own rousing compositions, two patriotic favorites, and Gould\u2019s colorful \u201cAmerican Salute.\u201d If his name isn\u2019t already on Cleveland\u2019s call-back list, it should be.<\/p>\n

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Then came the singing, and what a voice it was. How it is that Menzel has starred on Broadway, won a Tony Award, appeared on \u201cGlee,\u201d and released three solo albums was plain for all to see.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Still, even in this respect, Menzel proved surprising, wielding an instrument of tremendous versatility. Big, dramatic numbers were clearly her forte. Each one she belted out with peerless force. But when it came to smaller, more intimate songs, such as Porter\u2019s \u201cLove for Sale,\u201d she also had the power to make the pavilion and lawn together feel like a lounge.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Given the many arenas in which Menzel has made a name for herself, the varied nature of her program was the night\u2019s only predictable element.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

From \u201cRent,\u201d she sang \u201cNo Day But Today Day,\u201d while \u201cI\u2019m Not That Girl,\u201d \u201cFor Good,\u201d and \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d amply represented \u201cWicked.\u201d From her own appealing albums she drew liberally, but she also presented two Streisand hits and covers of \u201cRoxanne\u201d by the Police and Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cPoker Face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menzel\u2019s act was not entirely free of pretense. Several times, the singer feigned surprise when the audience recognized a tune.<\/p>\n

But just as the crowd\u2019s applause was clearly genuine, so too did one have the feeling that when Menzel thanked everyone for attending, she really meant it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A knockout performance by Idina Menzel one expects. A total lack of pretentiousness on the part of a superstar ones does not. Maybe aficionados of Menzel\u2019s work on stage and screen were prepared for the vocalist\u2019s dynamic, disarming manner in her collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra Saturday night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/9745970-large.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-ib","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1129,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions\/1129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}