With the microphone clutched firmly behind her back and the theater so silent a pin drop could be heard, Idina Menzel belted out the lyrics to \u201cFor Good\u201d from \u201cWicked\u201d high into the rafters as fans watched in awe.<\/p>\n
Theater-goers have known for years what a talented gem the Broadway star is. The rest of the world caught on to Menzel\u2019s talent two years ago when Disney catapulted her into household name territory thanks to a little film titled \u201cFrozen,\u201d in which she plays ice queen Elsa.<\/p>\n
Those two worlds came together Tuesday night when Menzel brought songs from her past Broadway shows and covers by artists who inspire her in a two-hour flawless concert at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh. Long-time admirers were met with little girls dressed in sparkles waiting to hear – and sing along with – \u201cLet It Go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel and her 14-person backing band provided an eclectic set list; truly, there was something for everyone. She started with \u201cDefying Gravity,\u201d then sang \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade\u201d and \u201cBrave.\u201d Two other popular songs from \u201cWicked\u201d made it into the show as well, the aforementioned \u201cFor Good\u201d and \u201cThe Wizard and I.\u201d It took a minute to adjust to the fact that Menzel was defying gravity as herself and not as green-faced witch Elphaba.<\/p>\n
Song selections went from upbeat (\u201cThere\u2019s No Business Like Show Business,\u201d \u201cAnything Goes\u201d) to soft and wallowy (Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cThe River,\u201d Radiohead\u2019s \u201cCreep\u201d). Her banter followed that formula as well, joking about how she may eventually become a Las Vegas act (\u201cAnd not the Celine Dion Las Vegas but in a side lounge somewhere\u201d). She switched gears, offering deeper and pensive observations, like sometimes it\u2019s hard to get up in the morning and sometimes you want to stay in bed curled under the covers. Sometimes you can\u2019t \u201clet it go.\u201d \u201cSometimes you want to sing something else,\u201d Menzel said.<\/p>\n
That something else was the perfect transition into \u201cCreep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dressed in a black cocktail dress with a detachable black and gold overlay skirt, which she eventually shed, along with her false eyelashes and high heels, Menzel isn\u2019t a buttoned-up Broadway diva like many would expect. She\u2019s got sass, personality and seems incredibly down to earth. She let all of that show when she came into the audience, slipping her feet in Ninja Turtle slippers because she kicked and spilled someone\u2019s drink the last time she was barefoot, for an audience-fueled version of \u201cTake Me or Leave Me\u201d from \u201cRent.\u201d Two men and two women took turns singing Menzel\u2019s part of the duet. Usually audience participation to this degree takes a left turn downhill pretty quickly, but here it worked. It was sweet to see how much these fans idolize Menzel and the musicals she was a part of.<\/p>\n
Menzel mentioned how her life went off the charts after \u201cFrozen\u201d was released, joking that she turned into a \u201cblonde bombshell\u201d and citing the following fame and celebrities mispronouncing her name (and by celebrities she meant John Travolta at the Academy Awards during her introduction).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was only the Oscars. No big deal,\u201d she quipped.<\/p>\n
Menzel naturally closed her regular set with \u201cLet It Go,\u201d inviting the children in the audience to meet her at the side of the stage to sing along with her. It was a cute moment that probably made the kids so happy. And as the little ones returned to their seats – with a plea from Menzel for the parents to help their kids instead of taking their photos – Menzel wailed out the final chorus before having the audience sing the \u201cthe cold never bothered me anyway\u201d lyric a few times over.<\/p>\n
The theater went dark for just a few seconds and re-lit when Menzel came back on stage for a one-song encore, saying she would close the show with a song she used to sing when she was little, \u201cTomorrow\u201d from \u201cAnnie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Careful not to over sing, Menzel perfectly unleashed her booming, beautiful voice on every song. This caliber of talent is extremely rare and just doesn\u2019t exist much in concert anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the microphone clutched firmly behind her back and the theater so silent a pin drop could be heard, Idina Menzel belted out the lyrics to \u201cFor Good\u201d from \u201cWicked\u201d high into the rafters as fans watched in awe. Theater-goers have known for years what a talented gem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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":[36],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-36"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-aV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","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=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}