{"id":265,"date":"2015-10-22T21:37:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T21:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=265"},"modified":"2015-10-22T21:46:02","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T21:46:02","slug":"concert-review-idina-menzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/concert-review-idina-menzel\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert Review: Idina Menzel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Menzel brings Broadway to the Auditorium Theatre<\/strong>
\nby Paloma Capanna<\/em><\/p>\n

If we count her opening excerpt from \u201cOver the Rainbow,\u201d soprano Idina Menzel was a thrill last night at the Auditorium Theatre, performing more than two hours of Broadway songs from hits such as \u201cWicked,\u201d \u201cRent,\u201d and \u201cA Chorus Line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menzel has a big, huge voice. If you love high notes…if you love sustained high notes…if you love a diva with her arms flung wide open, head laid back and eyes closed, then Menzel is a soprano for you.<\/p>\n

But, with the exception of a few songs, Menzel’s concert was too much of a good thing. When Menzel performed two of the best songs of the night, one an original (unnamed) song (lyrics anchored to \u201cIt is I\u201d) and \u201cLearn to Live Without,\u201d she sang from a different place \u2013 emotionally and physically. In these songs, Menzel was tender, vulnerable, and genuine. She spoke a few words, then she breathed out a few more. Her vibrato was dialed far down so that she sang a clear and clean melody, and her voice reflected textures of singing from chest to head.<\/p>\n

By comparison, when she sang, \u201cWhat I Did for Love\u201d (\u201cA Chorus Line\u201d) each separate word of the repetitive \u201c\u2026had to do\u2026\u201d was hit hard and swelled louder, interrupting a simple melody bearing a sad lyric. And when she sang \u201cAt the Ballet\u201d (\u201cA Chorus Line\u201d), Menzel was strong and loud throughout, as opposed to building the tension to the point where the character\u2019s obviously broken heart cannot convince herself that the fantasy of the ballet can compensate for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n

In a solo show, the singer performing Broadway must rapidly shift from one character to another. If Menzel is going to use props \u2013 use them, don\u2019t discuss them. If Menzel is going to wear a long gown and go barefoot \u2013 have it hemmed for barefoot height to eliminate all the struggles with fabric getting in the way. And, if Menzel is going to wear a strapless gown \u2013 get it fitted so that energy is not wasted on gown yanking that could go into pulling upon the heart strings of the audience.<\/p>\n

The reason any of this is even brought up: Menzel talked about all of this while on stage. For the first few songs, more time was spent talking than singing. Menzel\u2019s self-described \u201craunchiness\u201d that she \u201cneeded to get out\u201d before her Monday concert at Carnegie Hall was hilarious, but when the seemingly unscripted humor of the performer picks apart the self, I have to wonder if she was truly uncomfortable on stage or had too many distractions interrupting her concentration? There were missed notes and candid facial expressions that reinforced my question.<\/p>\n

When Menzel stripped away the band and the microphone and sang one song a cappella, \u201cChanged for Good\u201d (\u201cWicked\u201d), she earned the long, standing ovation. For that one song, not only was Menzel grounded physically, but she was listening to herself sing in the specific space of the Auditorium Theatre. If only Menzel could have brought that same approach to the whole night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Menzel brings Broadway to the Auditorium Theatre by Paloma Capanna If we count her opening excerpt from \u201cOver the Rainbow,\u201d soprano Idina Menzel was a thrill last night at the Auditorium Theatre, performing more than two hours of Broadway songs from hits such as \u201cWicked,\u201d \u201cRent,\u201d and \u201cA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266,"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":[28,12],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-28","tag-barefoot-at-the-symphony"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/mrev_idina_103112.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-4h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}