Idina Menzel showed some \u201cWicked\u201d ways with the PSO.<\/p>\n
Fans of \u201cGlee,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d and \u201cRent\u201d packed Heinz Hall Wednesday night for a sold-out show starring Idina Menzel.<\/p>\n
It was a beautiful sight to see the place filled with an audience ranging from 5 to 95 years old from all walks of life.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra sounded beautifully crisp under the baton of Lawrence Loh, who brought a first-half program that included the overture to \u201cCandide,\u201d and selections from \u201cLes Miserables\u201d and \u201cWicked\u201d alive to an expectant audience. The electricity must have filled the air because everything sounded so on target and the selections only heightened the anticipation for Ms. Mendel.<\/p>\n
She took the stage after intermission to rousing applause and looked elegant and relaxed in a Grecian column gown in a shade of deep purple that set off her striking features.<\/p>\n
She started with \u201cLife of the Party,\u201d showcasing those Broadway chops, and then began telling the audience stories about being dragged up to sing \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d Barbra Streisand-style, at every bat mitzvah when she was growing up.<\/p>\n
She sang an amazing version of Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cLove for Sale\u201d that was woven with The Police\u2019s \u201cRoxanne.\u201d The effect was jarring and beautiful all at once. Hearing the PSO make the transition was also a treat.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunny Girl\u201d took on a life of its own when Ms. Menzel told what happened when she met her idol at the Kennedy Center honors \u2014 she sang \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade\u201d with Ms. Streisand in the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were seated at the same table at the after party and she didn\u2019t say a word. Finally, after people were commenting on my performance, she asked, \u2018Was that you? I didn\u2019t have my glasses on and couldn\u2019t see you \u2014 you did good.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Some contemporary music followed with \u201cGorgeous,\u201d a Menzel original, and \u201cPoker Face\u201d by Lady Gaga. I never dreamed I\u2019d be hearing that out of the PSO!<\/p>\n
Ms. Menzel, who was in the original off-Broadway cast of \u201cRent,\u201d sang \u201cNo Day But Today,\u201d dedicating the poignant song to the show\u2019s creator, Jonathan Larson, who died of an aneurysm at age 36 one day before the show opened.<\/p>\n
She lightened it up with a mini-medley of songs she sings to newborn son Walker (hubby is Taye Diggs) that was full of a bluesy swing.<\/p>\n
The evening ended with a show-stopping \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d that had the audience cheering for more. It came in the form of \u201cTomorrow,\u201d the perfect goodbye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Idina Menzel showed some \u201cWicked\u201d ways with the PSO. Fans of \u201cGlee,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d and \u201cRent\u201d packed Heinz Hall Wednesday night for a sold-out show starring Idina Menzel. It was a beautiful sight to see the place filled with an audience ranging from 5 to 95 years old from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[29,12],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-29","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2012_07_01_review.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-2B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}