Review: Tony Winning Star KRISTIN CHENOWETH Returns to OC's Segerstrom Center

For those who missed Tony Award-winning Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth's superb Hollywood Bowl debut solo concert back in August 2013 (which BWW featured HERE), Orange County was once again gifted a more compact, intermission-free version of her "Coming Home" show on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts (she also performed a longer version of this concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall last year). While the one-night-only OC tour stop was certainly shorter and has less showy bells and whistles as that fireworks-emblazoned Bowl show, this more intimate, stripped-down jazz-combo setting was a satisfying, entertaining evening showcasing this living legend's inimitable talents and quirky personality. I mean, after all... all you really need is the star herself!

And by the deafening screams of delight from the audience, this bright light of sheer joy and sparkle (just like the silver mini-dress that draped her all evening) definitely did not disappoint her long-time followers as well as first-timers.

As expected, the spunky and sassy Ms. Chenoweth---joined on stage by musical director/accompanist Mary-Mitchell Campbell and an excellent four-piece jazz ensemble---wowed the adoring crowd throughout the show with her Southern-fried tales of growing up as a Christian daddy's girl in Oklahoma, who would later rise to meteoric marquee heights on the Broadway stage thanks to her incredible set of vocal pipes and unmissable acting chops. Along the way, she adorably name-drops local OC pop culture talking points (The Real Housewives, South Coast Plaza) and talks of a career highlighted with collaborations with big names both on stage, on television, and on film.

But, really, Ms. Chenoweth's repeat visits to the OC has always been touted as very special events regardless, particularly for her many fans in the area who know her mostly as the wonderful singer-actress that originated the role of Glinda in the Winnie Holzman / Stephen Schwartz Broadway blockbuster WICKED (which, funny enough, just concluded its latest national tour stop at the venue just a week prior). Naturally, she reminds all time and again---even here, sans Good Witch costume, for this solo concert of Broadway hits and other personal favorites---that she has provided the absolute definitive portrayal of the role... and thus, she throws the crowd into a frenzy once she starts on a couple of her WICKED signature songs: "Popular," and, later, "For Good."

For the former, she frames the song in a snarky new way: she offers up the WICKED tune as a helpful musical tutorial for current polarizing Presidential candidate Donald Trump whom she claims "called her up" recently seeking advice on "how to be more likable" to the public. Unabashedly, the very funny Ms. Chenoweth up-sweeps her hair to mimic Trump's infamously ridiculous hair-do'---and the audience collectively loses their s**t! Yes, not only is she one of the most amazing singers Broadway has ever produced, she is also one of its down-right funniest people.

And, the latter song---a lovely duet Glinda sings in WICKED with her BFF Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West---is once again Chenoweth's genuinely touching, kind opportunity to provide an unknown, untapped young talent to fulfill her dream on stage by singing it with her. To newbies of this practice, Chenoweth usually plucks out a volunteer from the audience to sing "For Good" with her. For this latest Segerstrom stop, she has especially selected a young woman that caught her attention via a wonderful letter from that girl's father. This fatherly plea touched Chenoweth so much that she invited this young woman---BYU Musical Theater student and former Miss Nevada Ellie Smith---to sing the duet with her.

When Smith triumphantly takes on the challenge (sounding flawless while looking understandably awed and starstruck), we cannot help but live vicariously through her as she sings impressively with Ms. Chenoweth---with perfect harmony and minor riffs, too! At every concert, this wonderful moment still becomes a remarkable highlight. (On a personal side note, even I half-jokingly composed a tweet to Ms. Chenoweth before her OC concert humbly "offering" up my services as a counter-tenor duet partner, on the off-chance that she was still searching for one for her Costa Mesa tour stop. What an interesting write-up this would have been LOL).

Later, Ms. Chenoweth further emphasizes her support for Arts Education by inviting a group of local musical theater students to sing back-up for her on a couple of songs, including a gospel number called "Up On This Rock" that harkens back to her church music singing days. She makes a cute, sort-of apology, saying "bare with me" to the audience.

Then, without skipping a beat, she adds: "For you Atheists, don't worry, the song will be over in just four minutes." Ha!

In between the hilarious, gut-busting anecdotes, her frequent sips from her large In-And-Out cup (a running theme of her concerts in which she professes her shameless love for the So Cal burger chain), and winning renditions of classics "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Moon River," "Maybe This Time," and "Over the Rainbow," the pint-sized Broadway Baby also takes time in her concerts to spread messages of love, tolerance, and harmony---an important theme for her as she talks about being both a devout Christian and a stern advocate for gay rights, two factions that aren't necessarily copacetic with one another. In my favorite moment of the concert, Ms. Chenoweth pleads for a more peaceful world, then offering up a stunningly heart-wrenching "Bring Him Home" from LES MISERABLES that had most of the audience understandably in tears. Perhaps this should have been the song she shared to soften up Mr. Trump.

Sure, Ms. Chenoweth has proven time and again of her unmistakable comedic gifts, which were in full display in her throwback hit about a Starbuck barista "Taylor, the Latte Boy," and her Oklahoma-censored version of "Dance 10, Looks 3" from A CHORUS LINE, which had her replacing the main lyric with much more, um, acceptable jargon. But, lest we forget, she is also quite a notably tender balladeer---offering up the emotionally-touching "Fathers and Daughters" (a tribute to her own close relationship with her dad), a beautifully stripped-down version of Don Henley's "Heart of the Matter," and a hauntingly spare rendition of Dolly Parton's "Little Sparrow" that echoed in the hall.

It's only fitting that she capped off the evening with the encore song "Smile," the Charlie Chaplin ballad that's both optimistically positive and emotionally endearing. It's the perfect way to describe the wonderful duality of Ms. Chenoweth herself.

Check her out in concert if you ever get a chance---she's oh so worth it!

** Follow this reviewer on Twitter: @cre8iveMLQ **

Photo by Matt Doyle courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

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Segerstrom Center for the Arts' 2015-2016 Spotlight Series continues next with Tony Award winner Lea Salonga in Concert on April 2,2016. Segerstrom Center for the Arts is located at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. For tickets or more information, visit SCFTA.org.