Take her or leave her, living Broadway legend Idina Menzel gave a sold-out crowd of roughly 6,000 fans a show to remember Monday \u2013 when she performed at Radio City Music Hall for the first time in a one-night-only concert.<\/p>\n
Idina Menzel: An Unofficial Countdown to \u201dLet It Go\u201d Live was, of course, incredible. The Tony winner showed off her mind-blowing vocal power in a variety of songs, kicking off the night with a chill-inducing \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d and segueing into everything from an Ethel Merman medley (the petition for Menzel to play Mama Rose in Gypsy one day begins now) to Radiohead\u2019s \u201cCreep.\u201d (Yes, really.) Her pipes were even more impressive considering Menzel is currently starring on Broadway eight times a week in If\/Then. Mondays are supposed to be her off night!<\/p>\n
The audience covered a wide age demographic, from little girls dressed up as princesses to adults hoping she might break out a few hits from Rent; there was also a surprising amount of men in attendance, and not just dads accompanying their elementary-age daughters. Speaking of the children: This show was not meant for fans who only know Menzel by way of Queen Elsa and Elphaba. She covered \u201cLove for Sale\u201d and \u201cRoxanne\u201d in a \u201cprostitution songs\u201d medley, and, just a few minutes into her set, Menzel swore, paused, and then declared with a laugh, \u201cI know we\u2019ve got little kids here, but just hold their ears so I can do my thing.\u201d Cue wild audience cheers.<\/p>\n
The quips didn\u2019t stop there: In between over two hours of powerhouse performances, Menzel acted like a total goof, whether she was giving a fake Tony acceptance speech (she lost this year\u2019s Lead Actress in a Musical prize to Jessie Mueller of Beautiful) or pretending to call ex-husband Taye Diggs from stage (!!!) to remind him she was singing to a sold-out crowd. On a serious note, Menzel also turned introspective throughout the evening, covering Joni Mitchell and acknowledging that she\u2019s in a time of \u201ctransition\u201d \u2013 this year has brought both professional highlights and personal hard times.<\/p>\n
Fans already know Menzel can sing (highlights included an a cappella \u201cFor Good\u201d as well as a poignant and powerful \u201cAlways Starting Over\u201d); below, read eight examples of the crazy stuff that happened Monday in between the songs. Turns out Menzel is both nuts and a goofball. Psst: Menzel also knows exactly how to handle a wardrobe malfunction. <\/p>\n
8.) Call it the Frozen effect: Menzel announced she\u2019ll release a Christmas album this year, which will include the original song \u201cDecember Prayer.\u201d (Her introduction to this information: \u201dI\u2019m Jewish, but\u2026\u201d) Before she began singing \u201cDecember Prayer,\u201d she made a joke about her breasts\u2014then cut off the band after they had started playing, explaining she wanted to wait a beat before segueing into opening lyrics that involved the word \u201ctouch.\u201d<\/p>\n
7.) Never fear, Rent-heads. Menzel sang two numbers from her Broadway debut: a gorgeous \u201cNo Day But Today,\u201d as well as a sassy \u201cTake Me or Leave Me.\u201d (Sadly, despite the loud moos of several audience members, Menzel didn\u2019t perform \u201cOver the Moon.\u201d) For \u201cTake Me or Leave Me,\u201d she went into the audience and invited specific audience members to sing with her \u2013 including a pushy lady who volunteered her little girl, only to have Mama Rose Mom sing most of the Joanne verse. And yes, Menzel totally called her on it.<\/p>\n
6.) Menzel noted how proud she is that so many of her most popular songs are empowering and inspiring, calling out \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d specifically. But then she got real, discussing how she isn\u2019t always as confident as those songs: \u201dIt\u2019s not always easy to just let it go.\u201d Menzel then revealed that her next number was Radiohead\u2019s \u201cCreep\u201d: \u201cThis is my anti-empowerment song!\u201d<\/p>\n
5.) About that aforementioned wardrobe malfunction: Menzel changed dresses halfway through the show (more on that later). The second ensemble featured a black leather bra top. The only problem? It wasn\u2019t totally secure, as the audience informed Menzel when she sashayed back to center stage. \u201cMy boobs are coming out!\u201d she exclaimed with a laugh. \u201c\u2026F\u2014 it, they\u2019re real!\u201d She seemed thrown for a moment, questioning just how many audience members saw anything on the huge screens on either side of the stage. (For what it\u2019s worth, Idina, my eyes were on you the whole time, and I didn\u2019t notice anything.)<\/p>\n
4.) Paranoia about the all-seeing screens came back a bit later, when Menzel glanced up to look at herself in her stunning silver sparkling gown. \u201cI don\u2019t like my panty lines!\u201d she announced, running offstage to get rid of the offending undergarments.<\/p>\n
3.) Last week, Menzel sat in the audience at Radio City at the Tony Awards \u2013 where she learned that Mueller had beaten her for Lead Actress. Because she was back at the same venue just a week later, she decided to reenact the moment \u2013 but this time with a different outcome. She sat in an audience member\u2019s lap, had him announce her as the winner, then took to the stage for a long faux acceptance speech. \u201cIs this bit getting old?\u201d she joked after a few minutes of sincere thank yous.<\/p>\n
2.) Partway through the show, Menzel held an intermission \u2013 or fauxmission. She announced that while she\u2019d be taking a brief break, she wouldn\u2019t be leaving the stage because she didn\u2019t want the audience\u2019s energy to come down or attention to come off of her. So a changing screen was brought out as an assistant helped Menzel switch gowns; all the while, she continued to vamp with the audience. She then appeared in a slinky black robe and sat down on a couch to rest for a moment, leading to\u2026<\/p>\n
1.) \u2026Menzel explaining she was going to call her 4-year-old son to tell him good night, mentioning he was with his father. She made a call to someone the audience assumed was Diggs, asking him to put Walker on the phone and saying she didn\u2019t have time to talk because \u201cright now I\u2019m at Radio City\u2026.playing my show\u2026[to a] sold-out crowd.\u201d After a back and forth that prompted plenty of gasps, Menzel revealed the call was a fake. But still: Point Menzel. #BroadwayDivaFTW<\/p>\n
The show \u2013 which also featured deep cuts from Menzel\u2019s not-exactly-blockbuster previous solo albums \u2013 ended (pre-encore) the only way it possibly could have, with Menzel belting her worldwide hit, \u201dLet It Go.\u201d Courtesy of Just Jared, here\u2019s Menzel\u2019s performance of the ubiquitous song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Take her or leave her, living Broadway legend Idina Menzel gave a sold-out crowd of roughly 6,000 fans a show to remember Monday \u2013 when she performed at Radio City Music Hall for the first time in a one-night-only concert. Idina Menzel: An Unofficial Countdown to \u201dLet It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"open","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-42"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/radiocity.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-6F","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","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=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}