Idina Menzel - Live in Concert Toronto, On - Review

November 17, 2011 Idina Menzel makes her first live apperance in Toronto to a sold out crowd at the Royal Conservatory downtown. This concert however was very special for the simple fact that it was being taped live, for a PBS special that will be airing the concert in March as well as a live CD and DVD. The moment I stepped into the concert hall I noticed the large TV camera's and as the audience was told, we were all going to be part of the live taping, so no cellphones, flashes...all that fun stuff that the audience is always warned about fifteen times and there is always one jackass who doesn't listen, yeah you girl with the ponytail and winter jacket, I heard your phone ring.

Then a man all dressed in black with a head set came out to tell us that we as the audience needed to participate in something special. Well it wasn't special but it was different, we were instructed to clap for the camera, then clap and cheer, then clap and no cheering, then clap and laugh and then clap and standing ovation. They do all of these 'action' shots to cut and paste into the edited and final version of the live program. I'd never been part of anything like that so it was very interesting. That ran until 8:10 before Idina came on, and I can say that in all the concerts i've been too, large and small no one ever EVER starts on time, but Idina defiantely started on time.

First Marvin Hamlisch comes out to a big round of applause and steps up on his podium and the orchestra starts to play, then Idina came out with this beautiful bright pink strapless gown with sparkly jewelry and no shoes, which no one seemed to noticed until she pointed it out. Our seats were incredible, regardless of the size of the auditorium, we could see her perfectly. Almost instantly my mother turned to me and said, "She looks so much younger in person" which I have to agree with, for some reason on Glee they're really trying to sell that she is a mother, and they do. Idina who is 40 looks that age on the show, but in person barely mid-30s, she gorgeous.

She opened with 'Life of the Party' from her first off-Broadway show called 'Wild Party.' Which got a surprising amount of applause, I say this slightly shocked because the show never made it to Broadway, which means it never made it to Toronto, and the only reason I know the song is because of Broadway efficianto Seth Rudetsky who does weekly vidlogs about things he's 'Obsessed' with. (Check it out on YouTube) I was slightly disappointed in the song only because if you ever hear the way she actually sang it during the show you'd be blown away, she hits these crazy riffs and its mind blowing, but she nailed the song and the orchestra is so beautiful, (check out the Youtube video for proof AhMAHzing)

Then she introduced the orchestra which is The Ktichener-Waterloo Orchestra and then legendary Marvin Hamlisch. He is legendary because he is one of 13 performers who have receive the EGOT, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards, Barbra Streisand is among those recipients.

She then introduces her next song which is from 'Wicked', which gets the loudest round of applause and enlists a look of shock over her face and then she reply's "You've seen it?....I was the green one." Which made me laugh simply because, beside Les Mes, Wicked was one of the highest grossing productions that even 7 years later still has a Worldwide Traveling company, I saw it this May at Shea Theater in Buffalo, NY.

She then proceeds to sing my least favorite song, vocally, from the show, 'I'm Not That Girl.' It is a beautiful song, but my dislike for it comes from the very last note. The song she sang on Broadway and the she sang tonight is not in her key, the song was originally composed for the other Elphaba from the San Francesco production and they never changed in into Idina's key, so her last note of "I'm no that girl" is octaves to low and it's boring, why not belt it? As she pointed out to the audience she has a 12 range octave, so then why the boring, sleepy note? Nonetheless it was perfection and she sounded fantastic and it was a chance for people like me, who never got to see her on Broadway imagine what it would've been like.

Idina had a lot of funny little moments, her sense of humor is very dry and just the right amount of self depreciating, for instance she talks about how she went to NYU where she studied musical theatre. In one of her classes she had a crush on her professor, who she didn't realize was gay. That got a good laugh, but it didn't stop there, the class assignment was to take a Cole Porter song and interpret it another way, she decided to pick the 'sexiest' song and nail the assignment while seducing her teacher. Well, it didn't work out, he stopped her during the song and told her that "Love for Sale" wasn't a love song, but instead about a woman living on the streets, selling her body for food and a place to live.

While the audience got a laugh out of it, her performance was so beautiful. She imcompassed that lost and lonely girl, by standing in front of the mic, hugging herself. She then did something that we can only attest to the success of Glee, she mashed it up with 'Roxanne' by the Police, for this vulnerable, yet empowering performance.

For people who didn't know Marvin Hamlisch was the 1973 Academy Award winner for his original song, "The Way We Were" from the film of the same name that starred Barbra Streisand, who was also nominated for an Academy Award. Barbra Streisand has played a large roll in Idna's musical career and life. As she tells Marvin she loved singing 'The Way We Were' as a young child in Long Island, with her young jewish accent. This was the introduction to the first time Idina met and performed for Mrs. Streisand, and it's a hilarious story.

Barbra was being honored at the Kennedy Center Honors for those involved in the performing arts. As Idina describes it, she was asked to sing and of course she said yes, she flies to Washington and during her sound check she notices that the stage manager keeps watching the floor and not her. He explains to her that she has to stay on her mark and make sure she doesn't fall into the large whole they cut out of the stage for when Beyonce makes her appearance. She finishes her rehearsal and meets Beyonce backstage, she asks her what song she's going to be singing and Beyonce answers, 'The Way We Were.' The audience laughs and claps and Idina says to Marvin, 'You know she's not going to sing it with an accent' more laughs and then very seriously she says, 'bitch.' It's a great moment and hilarious, but it doesn't end there.

She decides to change the lyrics in 'Don't Rain on My Parade' from "Hey there Mr. Arstein, here I am" to "Hey Mrs. Streisand I'm your biggest fan", its great and it works and she said she felt great after her performance. After at the reception she and her husband are placed at Barbra's table, which Idina says, Barbra proceeded to ignore her for the entire meal. She decides that to pass the time, her and her husband do tequila shots. But she does get her moment of recognition, kind of. As Barbra gets ready to leave she puts on her glasses and looks at Idina and says, "Did you perform for me tonight? I wasn't wearing my glasses" Idina replies that yes she did, she sang 'Don't Rain on My Parade,' Barbra pauses and says, "you were good" and then leaves. It's a hilarious moment of both amazement and wonder. I look over at my mom and laugh because we are both thinking the same thing, 'Barbra is such a bitch,' but in the best way possible.

Her song selections were 'Funny Girl,' which is almost pitch perfect to the way she sang it on Glee, and 'Don't Rain on My Parade' which was also amazing, because if nothing else Idina is an amazing belter, but besides Barbra Streisand herself, no one truly sings the song like Lea Michele, that fact is irrefutable.

Before she got to her Barbra Streisand story there was a moment where she messed up the order of the performance, so she had to stop and asked us all to ignore what she just said, it was a moment where you stop and realize, oh yeah this is live. She then tells her Barbra story and then moved on to the next song "Asleep on the Wind" by Jimmy Web. This is where people noticed that she wasn't wearing shoes, she doesn't explain why, but if the constant pacing from one side of the stage to the other is any indication, then we all know why. This was a song I'd never heard before, but it was beautiful, especially with the whole percussion playing along in the background, and again amazing belting and vibrato that is just mind blowing.

The beauty of a show like this is that the singer will do what they can to make it as personal for the audience as it is to them, which is why Idina tells many stories in between each song, and it's also nice as a viewer and listener to live vicariously through that persons life of success.

Idina talks about her job as a wedding singer that she did for many years, starting at the age of 15, although she lied and said she was 18 because that would make her seem more mature. There are some great funny moments here where she discusses the horrible choices people make for their first dance. One couple choose Whitney Houston's "All My Love For You" which if you listen to the lyrics is about infidelity. That got a laugh, as well as her story about being instructed to continue playing while a man on the dance floor was having a heart attack.

This story becomes relevant when she discusses that she officially stopped being a wedding singer in 1995 when she got her first Broadway gig as Maureen in 'Rent.' Big round of applause for that, if you hadn't watched the Broadway show, which closed in 1998, then you've probably seen the less successful film version, also starring Idina. She talks about how 'Rent' changed her life, it's where she met her husband Taye Diggs and its where she received her first Tony Award nomination, which she doesn't mention, in fact she doesn't even mention she won a Tony Award for Wicked.

While the story before this was cute and funny, this one is a lot more somber and sad. Jonathan Larson who was the composer for 'Rent' had died from an aortic dissection the day before the first viewing of the show. Emotion was evident in Idina's voice as she talked about all the great things Jonathan had done and what he had done for her, and then she sang an emotional cover of 'No Day But Today.'

Her next song is an odd choice, one that had people confused and then amused. The opening beat of Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' starts, which is noticeably slower then the original and than Idina sings the opening lines. It was nice to see that besides myself and my mom, there were many Glee fans in the audience, who instantly recognized the song and where she was going. After the up-tempo beat starts and she finishes the chorus, she asks Marvin to stop because she didn't set up the song, this is all part of her 'act.'

She then explains, she had just had her son, she was feeling fat and like she was never going to work again, and then she gets a call from Ryan Murphy at Glee asking her to come be part of the show, she agrees, for obvious reasons. She then explains that she opens up the first script and reads that she is going to be playing the mother to the main character, Rachel Berry played by Lea Michele, who in real life is in her mid-twenties and is someone that Idina has known for a while. She then explains the significance of the song, it's supposed to be a mother/daughter type of reunion song, but she doesn't really get how with lyrics like, "bluffin' with my muffin, and my live glue gunnin" are and she's not wrong it was such an odd choice of song, especially when we could've had greatness with duets 'Somewhere' from West Side Story, done earlier this season, just saying.

The man in the all black and head piece comes onto the stage and ushers Idina off, she has to re-touch her make up, again live audience. When she comes back she talks about her two year old son Walker Nathaniel Diggs. She explains that with having two musically inclined parents, herself and Taye, the child will either be a musical genius or a doctor, something along those lines. She explains that everything they do with their son somehow involves music, they sing him to sleep, sing him books, sing when they change his diaper, they're always singing, even making up their own songs, which she then proceeds to sing, its called 'Good Morning Walker' and is mashed up with another song called 'I. Feel Smoochie' I am unsure if it's a cover or another song she wrote, but it's cute and her vocals are again flawless.

There's another pause when her make up guy comes on stage to touch her up when someone yells from the Mezzanine, "Beth belongs to you" which she doesn't hear, until an audience member in the front clarifies it for her, to which she rolls her eyes and laughs. It seemed that when it came to Glee, she like, most of the viewers, are truly over the current story-line of Shelby and Puck and Quinn trying to steal her baby back, but you can tell she is grateful to be involved in such an amazing show. Then someone laughs and it literally sounds like a bird and when she hears it she immediately goes that person is a Soprano, turns out she was right. Then the funniest moment was when Marvin gives her this look and she replies, "What I'm not going to let her sing, this is my show" it was hilarious and exactly the kind of humor Idina has.

Marvin then comes on the mic and introduces a very special guest, Mr. Taye Diggs. Loud round of applause and then they do this little bit of thinking they know each other, but just not sure how. She thinks they slept together and doesn't remember, he replies she wouldn't forget, he asks if she is on the Real Housewives which she is not impressed by, all in fun, and then they get to singing. Truthfully I don't even know what song it was, but they had to do it twice because one camera man couldn't get a clear shot through.

There was about a 3 minute delay where she answered audience questions about going back to Broadway, which she said she is working on something, but wants it to be original and different. She's going to work on a new album once this special is done and the CD and DVD are released. Then Taye came back out and they did the song again, which I didn't really care for, but they sounded great together and Taye has this really sexy jazzy blues voice, I was really impressed.

She then sings a song called 'Look to the Rainbow,' I'm not sure who sings this or if it's an original, but it was beautiful and full of power. She then gets up and thanks the orchestra and the audience, tells us how much she appreciates us coming out and participating in the show, then does something very touching and real. She stands center stage, no mic in hand and no orchestra playing along and sings A. Capella 'For Good' from Wicked as a thank you to us all. It is so amazing to hear and see her do something like this, her voice was powerful and beautiful and it was simply effortless and amazing.

This then transitions into 'Defying Gravity' which she of course nails, crazy belting, an amazing rift I didn't expect and perfect vibrato. She then bows with Marvin and walks off, while receiving and standing Ovation, before she comes back out and Marvin sits behind the piano.

He proceeds to play 'The Way We Were,' and this is the one thing I was desperately hoping for. This is my moms favorite song of ALL time and I was so happy that Idina sang it, truthfully before she even got the first lyrics out my mother was already crying, that's what the song does to her.

After her amazing rendition of the song, she seats herself center stage and sings 'Tomorrow' from Anne, which she dedicates to her parents. It was amazing and very different from the more up tempo version from the film, but I prefer hers much more, its all voice, all technique, pure beauty.

All in all the show was amazing, it lasted to about 10:30 and was a lot of fun, Idina was funny and cute, her voice is literally a piece of heaven, and on top of that we were all in the room with a Tony Award winner, that's enough for me.