{"id":928,"date":"2019-03-26T20:02:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=928"},"modified":"2022-01-08T17:25:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-08T17:25:14","slug":"idina-menzel-brings-down-the-house-at-tuts-golden-anniversary-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-brings-down-the-house-at-tuts-golden-anniversary-gala\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel Brings Down the House at TUTS Golden Anniversary Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Five-hundred twenty-five thousand six-hundred minutes<\/span> and $1.37 million: such\u00a0were the themes for Theater Under the Stars\u2019s 50th anniversary season gala last Saturday night, a record-breaking fundraiser for the local performing arts community. The belle of the ball was Idina Menzel, the multi-hyphenate\u00a0talent best known either as Maureen from\u00a0Rent\u00a0<\/em>or Elsa from\u00a0Frozen,\u00a0<\/em>depending on who you ask (and how old they are).<\/p>\n

More than 600 well-heeled\u00a0patrons of the arts turned out for the grand occasion, which saw the Post Oak Hotel ballroom transformed into a glittering, celestial wonderland thanks to event designer Taylor DeMartino of Blooming Gallery. Guests dined on heirloom tomato salad, filet mignon with truffle potato puree, and strawberry and pistachio panna cotta on elegant tablescapes bedecked with lush roses and softly burning candles beneath the Post Oak\u2019s signature chandeliers and, fittingly, a swirling star light show on the ceiling.<\/p>\n

KTRK ABC-13 anchor\u00a0Samica Knight emceed the evening, which began with a tribute from gala co-chairs Leticia and Steve Trauber and Cheryl and Louis Raspino to past chairs and presidents of the TUTS board since 1968. Artistic director Dan Knetchges and executive director Hillary Hart spoke next about TUTS\u2019s impact, but the audience didn\u2019t have to take their word for it\u2014a live performance of\u00a0Rent\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>\u201cSeasons of Love\u201d followed, and local performers Christina Wells, Courtney Markowitz, and Marco Camacho with students from the Humphreys School for Musical Theatre and The River Performing and Visual Arts Center brought the crowd to its feet (and more than a few audience members to tears).<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the last time the room would hear from those performers:\u00a0Menzel would bring several back on stage to join her in impromptu choruses over the course of her spirited, intimate performance that spanned her iconic repertoire over nearly an hour.<\/p>\n

Had she ended\u00a0the night\u00a0two songs in, her crowd would\u2019ve still gone wild. It was then, for \u201cTake Me or Leave Me\u201d\u2014Maureen\u2019s shining moment in\u00a0Rent,\u00a0<\/em>a playful duet with the character\u2019s girlfriend, Joanne\u2014that Menzel surprised everyone by asking for audience participation, making it clear from the get-go that this whole thing would be an immersive experience. A smattering of hands shot up around the ballroom, and Menzel made her way over to three different participants, mic in-hand.<\/p>\n

They all, it turned out, could\u00a0seriously\u00a0<\/em>sing. (What else would you expect from\u00a0a TUTS gala?) Lainey Balagia, Michelle Lowther, and Christina Wells\u00a0needed no lyrical prompting or vocal coaching for Joanne\u2019s verse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I might as well just go home at this point,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cNobody told me I was going to be surrounded by so much talent this evening. I\u2019m done; I\u2019m out of here. Goodnight, Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, she stayed,\u00a0progressing through\u00a0Wicked\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe Wizard and I,\u201d her version of Barbra Streisand\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade,\u201d \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water,\u201d and an emotional arrangement of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cDear Prudence\u201d and\u00a0Frozen\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>\u201cDo You Want to Build a Snowman\u201d she dedicated to her sister.<\/p>\n

More emotional yet was Menzel\u2019s prelude to \u201cNo Day But Today,\u201d a particularly affecting ballad from\u00a0Rent<\/em>\u00a0that serves as a melodic, carpe diem\u00a0<\/em>synopsis for the entire rock opera.\u00a0The late composer\u00a0Jonathan Larson, then 35, \u201chad a community like this one that really supported him\u201d when he wrote the musical that made her a star. \u201cHe hired a bunch of us kids he believed in,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cOn the night of our first dress rehearsal, in front of a live audience, he passed away. So, needless to say, it\u2019s always been a complicated, bittersweet memory for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she\u2019ll sing the song whenever she\u2019s on a stage, she said, \u201cto thank him for changing the trajectory of my life.\u201d But it was more\u00a0profound to perform it for an audience like this one, \u201cpeople who really understand the theater,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen I\u2019m surrounded by a group of such magnanimous people who understand the importance of giving back and how the arts gives us such an opportunity to express ourselves, well, then it\u2019s like the song takes on even more meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lest the mood turn too melancholy, Menzel roused the crowd once more for her final performance\u2014none other than the Academy Award-winning \u201cLet It Go,\u201d perhaps universally acknowledged (at least among parents) as the most pleasant\u00a0earworm of all time. Though it\u2019s been done time and again since Menzel debuted\u00a0it in 2013\u2032s\u00a0Frozen,\u00a0<\/em>Saturday\u2019s\u00a0live version might be the most heart-warming of all: Menzel called\u00a0back TUTS student performers from earlier in the evening, including\u00a0those from Humphreys and The River, which serves young performers with disabilities. All were visibly ecstatic to\u00a0perform with Menzel, who made sure each got at least one solo.<\/p>\n

All told, the delightful and record-breaking evening raised nearly $1.4 million, including\u00a0$90,000 in the \u201cpaddles up\u201d portion of the program alone. Guests bid on auction items like trips to the Tony Awards, Cabo, and South Africa; a Houston Rockets suite; and designer purses.<\/p>\n

Before the Georgia Bridgwater Orchestra kicked off the official after-party, Mayor Sylvester Turner led the crowd in a champagne toast to the work TUTS has done over the last half-century. \u201cMay the best of its past be overshadowed by its future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

All night long, the spirit of community was\u00a0palpable in the ballroom, perhaps best displayed during one of the impromptu dialogues between Menzel and her enraptured crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have something to be so proud of,\u201d she said. \u201cI know that I wouldn\u2019t be here if I didn\u2019t have something like this organization in my life. It\u2019s not an organization\u2014what would you call it? A theater company?\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd yelled something back, not immediately distinguishable from the back of the room. But from Menzel\u2019s spot at center-stage, it was crystal clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity,\u201d she echoed. \u201cOkay, dammit!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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  Five-hundred twenty-five thousand six-hundred minutes and $1.37 million: such\u00a0were the themes for Theater Under the Stars\u2019s 50th anniversary season gala last Saturday night, a record-breaking fundraiser for the local performing arts community. The belle of the ball was Idina Menzel, the multi-hyphenate\u00a0talent best known either as Maureen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":929,"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":[56],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-56"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel_TUTS_Gala_2019_Priscilla_Parish_Dickson_Photo_upiwcp.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-eY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","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=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}