Welcome to the Idina Menzel World Tour and therapy session, guaranteed to push your emotional buttons and allow the diva on stage to get in tune with all of hers.
The “original green girl” of “Wicked” was a little bit naughty, a little bit nice and a little bit nutty, but always entertaining in concert at the Benedum Theater Tuesday night. Each song, each story she told, was like unwrapping an elegantly wrapped package to see what surprise it held inside.
After projected clips and voiceovers flashed through a sheer white curtain backdrop, the Tony Award-winning star of “Wicked,” a nominee for “Rent” and “If/Then” and the singer of the Oscar-winning “Let It Go,” emerged on stage 25 minutes after the scheduled 8 p.m. start. She was wearing black and gold — a black strapless dress with a black-and-metallic gold sheer sarong draped through her belt.
Ms. Menzel let the audience know she meant business right away, singing two songs that only a certified diva should attempt: Her own “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” holding seemingly impossible notes for an eternity, something she would repeat or top throughout the night.
Her setlist stayed strictly to the lists we’ve seen from her tour, which includes stops in Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, Canada and the U.S. Yet within that structure, nothing seemed overly rehearsed, and most everything seemed off the cuff, particularly her interactions with the audience. She threw off her gold heels, at first in favor of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle slippers, and then frolicked barefoot, and in the process made the 2,800-seat theater seem like an intimate cabaret.
Possessing a voice that could be categorized as coquettish to flat-out belter and everything in between — and with a stage presence to match — she usually is labeled a mezzo-soprano. But why pigeonhole someone so intriguingly offbeat? Ms. Menzel interprets songs as much as an actress as a singer, and therein lies her connection to the music and her fans.
Early on, when the audience’s reactions seemed to her too tame, she declared, “I’m feeling loopy tonight, Pittsburgh. I wish you were feeling loopy with me.” A loud “I love you” from the audience then prompted her to respond, “I love you is nice, but doesn’t anyone want to sleep with me?”
It was about that time she reminded the parents in the audience to cover the ears of the little ones, there to hear the voice of “Frozen’s” Elsa sing the megahit, “Let It Go,” but also there when the singer’s blue streak reminded us that this 44-year-old mother is away from home, and when mom’s away, mom gets to play like an adult. I’m sure the lyrics to Radiohead’s “Creep” had a few parents taking the “cover their ears” advice.
More often, though, Ms. Menzel was offering up the songs that have made her one of Broadway’s brightest stars. Before “Frozen” made her an all-ages heroine, she got her start in “Rent” as the bisexual performance artist Maureen. From that show, she pulled the duet “Take Me or Leave Me,” and to help her convey the message of “take me as I am,” she called on fans to help her out. She made friends and earned hugs from four audience members who knew the words to her part and her partner’s part, including the amazing Corey Spaw, 25, of Connellsville, who belted right along with her.
She followed by sitting at the edge of the stage and singing “No Day But Today” as a tribute to the late “Rent” creator Jonathan Larson, who died on the eve of the show’s debut.
That was one of the show’s quieter moments, but nothing compared to “For Good,” a “Wicked” duet with Kristin Chenoweth in the musical, but in Ms. Menzel’s concerts, an a cappella, mic-less rendition. The only sound to be heard was the singer’s clear voice singing Stephen Schwartz’s words: “Because I knew you / I have been changed for good.”
In the middle of the set, Ms. Menzel delivered the mashup of “Love for Sale” and “Roxanne” by the Police. She explained that during her freshman year at NYU, she tried to seduce a teacher (whom she didn’t realize was gay), with the Cole Porter song, and he had to explain that it was a sexy song, but other passions were at play.
Next, she honored a fellow belter who she said doesn’t get enough attention these days: Ethel Merman. The medley of “There's No Business Like Show Business,” “Anything Goes” and “Everything's Coming Up Roses.” She may still be holding that final note.
On an elegant, black and white stage, Ms. Menzel was backed by a 15-piece orchestra, including 10 local musicians on strings and brass, with her conductor and pianist, Clifford Carter, guitar player John Benthal, and bassist Sean Hurley, each called out for solos.
The singer's most recent Broadway gig, soon to be a national tour, is the musical “If/Then,” about a woman’s choices and where they lead. Ms. Menzel noted that her professional life was on a roll but there have been challenges in her personal life recently (she didn’t specify her divorce this year from actor Taye Diggs), and that her character in “If/Then” taught her lessons about regret. Her song from that show, “Always Starting Over,” includes a lyric that sums up what would seem to be the performer’s philosophy to putting on a show: “What the gods have to give / I’ll take, and I’ll live, and be bold.”
Ms. Menzel also called on the audience to do its part, and on “Let It Go,” she gathered as many children as were willing to sit with her on the stage steps to sing “Let It Go” — like the adults, they, too, knew the words.
For her encore, the singer delivered a song not from her own Broadway successes, but one she said that she sang as a child — “Tomorrow," from "Annie." She toned down the usual histrionics associated and lent it an air of gravity. It was a change for good.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960.
First Published: August 26, 2015, 10:48 a.m.
