Idina Menzel in Concert- I've Been following Idina's career since I fell in love with Rent, sigh, twenty years ago. I finally was able to see her on Broadway last year in If/Then, a show and performance that I think is really underrated. I was excited to catch her world tour last week in Boston. She sings a couple forgettable tracks from her previous studio albums, but the rest of her set was songs from her shows, songs from other Broadway shows and remakes. She gives her all to every one of her singing performances. Standouts were Defying Gravity, an acapella For Good, Annie's Tomorrow, and surprisingly a remake of Radiohead's Creep. You can tell that the between song banter is not her specialty because those moments lessened the energy. Luckily, everything was back to a great place when she started singing again with that amazing unique voice.
Waitress: A New Musical :
Cambridge's excellent A.R.T. theater is presenting Waitress directed by Diane Paulus before it heads to Broadway. Paulus has had quite a streak at A.R.T. and Broadway with Tony favorite revivals Porgy and Bess and Pippin and the crowd pleasing Finding Neverland. It remains to be seen if Waitress will continue her streak because it definitely needs some work. The play does a great job recreating the setting of the original excellent film. the dialogue and some characters are a bit clunky though , but it's fixable. I just hope they take the time to work on those things before heading to Broadway. I didn't know what to think when I heard Sara Bareilles was writing the songs for the show, but they are definitely the highlight. I'm very much looking forward to the cast recording even if there is one ballad too many in the second act. There is some casting that may need to be changed for Broadway, but getting rid of Tony Winning Jessie Mueller would be a huge mistake. Her unique voice is perfectly suited for the folky songs. I'm cheering for this one to do well, but until some tweaking happens Broadway success seems iffy. That said Boston seems to love the whole run has been sold out. I had to buy a scalped ticket on Dtubhub to go at markup price. The audience minus the theatre geeks I was sitting next to was not disappointed. So what do I know?
Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Taye Diggs-
It is coincidence that I saw Taye Diggs perform in the same week as his ex wife Idina Menzel. Hedwig is officially the show I've seen the most. After Saturday night's performance it was my 6th time to see it on and away from Broadway. And while it was not my favorite performance of it, Taye Diggs does a nice job of making it his own. He has a nice time with an audience pointing out that he's, in fact, a black Hedwig, and poking fun at the primarily white Broadway audience. He's a better singer than his Rent character showed. His jazzing up the Hedwig songs was surprisingly not unwelcome. Hedwig finishes its successful Broadway run next week, and it is nice that it is going out with a talented cast and some diversity.
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