REVIEW: Kristin Chenoweth Concert @ Fox

The Kristin Chenoweth Concert @ the Fox Theatre was a very warm breeze in this cold, and getting colder, month of January.  It was one of those events I knew I couldn't miss, much like seeing Margaret Cho last spring.  The first half of her program included medleys from old-school musical theatre composers Meredith Willson (a lovely job on "Till There Was You") and Jerome Kern (her "Bill" was simply touching).  We also got a glimpse into her quirky real-life crush on a Starbucks employee in "Taylor, the Latté Boy." Kristin ended the first half of the program with Irving Berlin's energetic "Let Yourself Go," backed up by two talented Broadway dancers, who joined her throughout the evening, and provided a humorous Brokeback Mountain-esque punchline in the dance number "Goin' To The Dance With You."

Throughout the evening, Ms. Chenoweth paid tribute to modern musical theatre composers including Stephen Schwartz (she sang "Popular" from Wicked with an ironic dedication to Gov. Rod Blagojevich; in the second half, she sang "For Good") and Andrew Lippa--who just happened to be her conductor for the evening!  Maestro Lippa led the Saint Louis Symphony with aplomb and only one noticeable false start.  Bravo to Mike Isaacson of the Fox for having brought all these talented forces together.  It's something we don't see that often.

One of the concert's high points, which typify Kristin's vocal versatility, came in "The Girl in 14G"--a witty riff on annoying singing neighbors (opera-wannabe upstairs; bebop-wannabe downstairs).  She has great command of the voice (voices?) she has developed over the years.  Her second half opener, Romberg's "I Wanna Be A Prima Donna," was yet another vocal acrobatic treat.

Ms. Chenoweth's banter with the audience and song-setups were quite engaging, if a bit long winded in parts.  She noted that this was her second performance at the Fox since the pre-Broadway tryout of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and waxed nostaglic about seeing her signature at the show-mural on the walls of the Fox Theatre backstage area.  Her only misstep was a setup to a Stephen Foster song about hope, wherein she didn't want to come off too political, but bungled it akwardly into a pro-Obama statement.  While most of us (myself included) cheered when she mentioned "hope for the next four years," my mother, an ardent Palinista, sat silent, arms crossed.  (I think it was, unfortunately, a real buzzkill for mom...and she made it known as we left the theatre...*sigh*)

Now, I was hoping and hoping for a performance of "Glitter and Be Gay" sometime in the evening.  As the concert progressed, I got a little worried we may not hear it, as Kristin admitted she was suffering from a cold (thank you to the sound engineers for sparing us the requisite nose-blowing in between numbers!).  Nevertheless, after her "final song," Kristin took her bows...then slinked into the wings.  The prolonged wait for her second bow, coupled by the orchestra sitting down to prepare for another piece, tripled by a stagehand bringing out a table bedecked with jewels absolutely brightened my heart!  Kristin came out in her third dress of the evening to tackle that Bernstein coloratura-showpiece after nearly 2 hours of belting, hoofing and being a generally great diva.  What a performer!  What an evening!

Kristin, you make me glad to be a singer...and you make me even gladder to know that it's ok to be open to ANYTHING.

Later folks!

**UPDATE**

Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic Sarah Bryan Miller reviewed the concert, and though she praised Cheno quite often, I felt cheated out of the obligatory zany, off-the-wall, WTF?! critiques SBM pulls out of thin air.