{"id":646,"date":"2018-07-04T17:09:17","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T17:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=646"},"modified":"2018-07-04T17:56:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T17:56:16","slug":"idina-menzel-mixes-broadway-pop-tunes-during-charismatic-fox-theatre-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-mixes-broadway-pop-tunes-during-charismatic-fox-theatre-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel mixes Broadway, pop tunes during charismatic Fox Theatre concert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There were more children in the audience for Idina Menzel\u2019s concert Tuesday at the Fox Theatre than at her concerts at Powell Hall, Peabody Opera House and the Pageant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Then again, when she performed at those venues, there was no \u201cFrozen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That 2013 animated blockbuster film was a game changer for Menzel. She voiced Queen Elsa and delivered its monster-size hit \u201cLet it Go,\u201d making her more of a generational artist who also appeals to children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For her rendition of \u201cLet it Go\u201d at the Fox, Menzel invited a few dozen children to join her for a sing-along. In a cute moment, she allowed many of them to sing a line from the song.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One little girl asked Menzel if she would return to St. Louis in 2018 to appear at the Muny for its 100th anniversary. (Muny executive producer and artistic director Mike Isaacson said after the show that he had no idea who the girl was and that she wasn\u2019t a plant.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel deftly mixed Broadway and pop material throughout the two-hour show (no intermission or opening act). She can be compared to Celine Dion, at least by her choice of tunes \u2014 treacly ballads and big pop songs that suit her outsized, unmistakable voice<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That was evident on opening song \u201cQueen of Swords,\u201d a track from her latest album, \u201cidina.\u201d She opened the heavily percussive song dramatically, banging on a pair of drums emblazoned with her name.<\/span> She followed with \u201cSmall World,\u201d another track from her album, ultimately performing half of its songs including \u201cI Do\u201d and \u201cPerfect Story,\u201d a ballad she says she wrote for her son.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But she first hit her stride with a drums-heavy version of \u201cSeasons of Love,\u201d from the musical \u201cRent,\u201d in which she originated the role of Maureen. \u201cI\u2019m Not That Girl\u201d was delivered lovingly, as was \u201cFor Good,\u201d which she impressively performed a cappella and without a microphone. Both are from \u201cWicked,\u201d the Broadway musical in which she originated the role of green witch Elphaba. Clearly, \u201cWicked\u201d remains Menzel\u2019s sweet spot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The night\u2019s highlight came with a perfect mashup of her cover of \u201cWind Beneath My Wings\u201d and (a version that can be difficult to cozy up to initially)<\/span> \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d (also from \u201cWicked\u201d). It was a breathtaking tour-de-force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel said she considered eliminating \u201cNo Day but Today\u201d (\u201cRent\u201d) from her set, but decided something would be missing without it. She holds onto the song as a tribute to \u201cRent\u201d playwright-composer Jonathan Larson, who died suddenly before the musical\u2019s first off-Broadway preview. During the show\u2019s most poignant moment, she talked about \u201cRent\u201d and Larson sitting cross-legged at the front of the stage. She ended the song with the crowd repeating its title with her over and over.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBridge Over Troubled Water,\u201d with its gospel undertones, exuded grace. But Aretha Franklin\u2019s \u201cRock Steady\u201d mostly cried out for the original and unexpectedly veered off into the Whispers\u2019 own \u201cRock Steady,\u201d a song that might be unknown to many of her fans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During a humorous interlude, Menzel attempted to fill an empty seat in the front row, encouraging her tour manager to find someone from the rear of the venue to move there. A male concertgoer finally took the front-row seat, and she chatted with him; he eventually asked her to marry him. She said she\u2019s recently engaged.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Menzel said her fianc\u00e9, actor-singer Aaron Lohr, inspired much of the new music she\u2019s performing on tour, including the song \u201cCake.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She closed the evening with the ballad \u201cI See You\u201d (from \u201cidina.\u201d). Fans submitted video of themselves that played in the background.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the end of the night, Menzel admitted she almost forgot to congratulate the Fox Theatre on the 35th anniversary of its reopening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, her \u201cWicked\u201d co-star Kristin Chenoweth performed her own show at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. What would it take for these two to tour together?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were more children in the audience for Idina Menzel\u2019s concert Tuesday at the Fox Theatre than at her concerts at Powell Hall, Peabody Opera House and the Pageant. Then again, when she performed at those venues, there was no \u201cFrozen.\u201d That 2013 animated blockbuster film was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":647,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-45"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/59942d4d4dea2.image_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-aq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646","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=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}