If there was any question about singer Idina Menzel\u2019s talent after a rough performance on last year\u2019s \u201cNew Year\u2019s Rockin\u2019 Eve\u201d or her hesitant singing of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, she blew it away on the opening song of her concert Tuesday at Sands Bethlehem Event Center.<\/p>\n
Mid-way through \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d from the Broadway play \u201cWicked,\u201d Menzel\u2019s voice soared with a huge, high note that drew a huge cheer from the sold-out and worshipping crowd.<\/p>\n
That told everything you needed to know about the show to come: Mendel\u2019s voice is a wonder: strong and rich. The singer was outgoing and enchanting and endearing. The crowd was enrapt. And Menzel\u2019s voice is far more suited to the stage than any other medium.<\/p>\n
Through a 105-minute show of 17 songs, backed by a 15-piece orchestra, Menzel covered not only her best-known Broadway work, but also paid tribute to other singers, gave a sampling of her solo work and even touched on popular music.<\/p>\n
Now 44, dressed in a long, flowing, strapless black dress and high silver heels, she also engaged the crowd throughout, asking during the opening song whether there were any straight men in the audience and told one who so identified himself, \u201cYou have no idea who the f\u2014k I am, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Realizing youngsters were in the crowd \u2013 several dressed as Princess Elsa from the Disney film \u201cFrozen\u201d because of Menzel\u2019s connection its hit \u201cLet It Go\u201d \u2013 she warned, \u201chold your children\u2019s ears.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of her early show was that tribute to other singers. She sang a big and brassy \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade\u201d from \u201cFunny Girl,\u201d and recalled performing it for Barbra Streisand, who Menzel said reacted with an underwhelmed \u201cYou were good. And then she left.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did a medley of Ethel Merman songs \u201cThere\u2019s No Business Like Show Business,\u201d \u201cAnything Goes\u201d and \u201cEverything\u2019s Coming Up Roses\u201d that — ironically considering Mormon\u2019s style and Menzel\u2019s introduction about \u201cbig, belting Broadway women\u201d — was far less brassy, though Menzel ended it with a huge note.<\/p>\n
And she sang Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cRiver\u201d in a fine performance, but also underwhelming in comparison to the rest of the show. Similar was a medley of Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cLove for Sale\u201d and The Police\u2019s\u201d Roxanne.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came to covers, she was surprisingly far better in Radiohead\u2019s \u201cCreep,\u201d on which Menzel was so intent that she lay down on stage and sang from her back.<\/p>\n
Her solo material was good. She was lovely and invested on \u201cBrave,\u201d but far better on \u201cStill I Can\u2019t Be Still,\u201d the title track from her 1998 debut album. (\u201cThree people bought it,\u201d she joked.) Taking off her shoes, she twirled like a princess, kneeled on stage, flailed her arms and whipped her now-blond hair.<\/p>\n
But the best of her solo material was her 2008 song \u201cI Stand,\u201d which was more broad-based. It was dramatic in a real, not theatrical, way, and showed the material with which Menzel could be a hit contemporary recording artist.<\/p>\n
But the concert showed Menzel\u2019s voice was made for the stage. \u201cThe Wizard and I\u201d from Broadway\u2019s \u201cWicked\u201d (\u201cThat was me in the green make-up,\u201d she said) was big and enveloping, and the crowd cheer edit heartily.<\/p>\n
And Menzel wisely wound toward the end of the show with those songs. \u201cNo Day But Today\u201d from \u201cRent\u201d was great, as Menzel it in tribute to playwright Jonathan Larson. Sitting on the stage floor, she sang much of it in an evocative lower range before a great high-note finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways Starting Over\u201d from \u201cIf\/Then\u201d was a showcase for Menzel\u2019s voice, and she nailed it \u2013 her vocals eclipsing the song and drawing a partial standing ovation.<\/p>\n
But the concert\u2019s highlight was Rent\u2019s \u201cTake Me or Leave Me,\u201d on which Menzel\u2019s performance was so invested it raised goose bumps.<\/p>\n
She obviously knew its worth, as she headed into the crowd, and over 13 minutes sang duets with four anxious audience members: One who identified herself as Genevieve wailed the song; Mike, who said it was his birthday, and Alison sang enthusiastically; and David told her she save his life.<\/p>\n
She closed the main set with an a capella \u2013 and largely unamplified \u2013 \u201cFor Good,\u201d which she dedicated to her father, who was in the crowd (\u201cThank you, daddy, for giving me singing lessons,\u201d she said), and then, of course, \u201cLet It Go,\u201d on which she uninhibitedly danced on stage and to which the audience sang loudly along. It stretched to eight minutes and was great, even with an ill-advised interlude of Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 \u201cGive It Away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel opened her encore from a stool, singing a new song, \u201dChild,\u201d which she said she wrote for her son. And it was very good \u2013 slow and delicately high. And she closed with the song \u201cTomorrow\u201d from \u201cAnnie.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last song was mostly voice over sparse accompaniment, and appropriate. There was no question about Menzel\u2019s talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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