Review: AN EVENING WITH DARREN CRISS at Emerson Colonial Theatre
The concert was presented at the Emerson Colonial Theatre on May 29.
Just days after departing his Tony-winning role in “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway, Darren Criss was onstage at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre for the first in a series of concerts that will take him from southern California to New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee between now and the end of September.
Opening with “It’s Not Unusual,” Criss put his own vocals, and a few of his own gyrations, into what has been Tom Jones’s signature song since it was first released 61 years ago. After reminding his Boston audience, “I was on Broadway just seconds ago,” Criss shifted gears, taking to the piano to perform the plaintive “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, which he sang in season two of “Glee,” and which in Boston floated to the highest rafters thanks to the Colonial’s exquisite acoustics.
Also for the many “Gleeks” – fans of the Fox-TV series – in the house, Criss, who played Blaine Anderson, lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers on the series, offered up a pitch-perfect rendition of Young Giants’ “Cough Syrup,” a season-three number Blaine sang to his emotionally vulnerable friend Kurt (Chris Colfer).
The blending of classic and contemporary pop with tunes from both the American and Broadway songbooks proved to be the order of the day for the popular performer, and his tight backing band – Devon Yesberger on keyboards, Chris Morrissey on bass, Tomek Miernowski on guitar, and pianist Thomas Pandolfi – was with him on every twist and turn.
And since the Emerson Colonial is a legendary Broadway tryout house, it was only appropriate that Criss’s 100-minute set featured respectful asides about the theatre’s rich history as well as showtunes from a warm-toned “Almost Like Being in Love,” from Lerner and Loewe’s “Brigadoon, to a wonderfully well delivered “Where or When” from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical “Babes in Arms,” which became a standard for Frank Sinatra, who recorded it three times, in 1945, 1958, and 1966.
Criss also made a lot of Olivia Newton-John fans happy with his spot-on cover of “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” written by John Farrar for the 1978 film version of “Grease,” which Newton-John made a pop hit that same year and which was included in the show’s 2007 Broadway revival. Newton-John’s homeland was again in the air when Criss matched his richly expressive voice to what he called both a “naughty song” and “an ode to modern love,” Pink’s “Walk of Shame” from her 2012 album “The Truth About Love,” released exclusively Down Under.
The Tony- and Emmy-winning actor and singer – famed not only for “Glee” but also for FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” and “Hollywood,” as well as Broadway shows including the 2011 revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” 2014’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” and the 2022 revival of “American Buffalo” – didn’t forget his most recent Broadway triumph either.
Indeed, Criss served up two songs from the still-running 2025 Tony winner for Best New Musical, “Maybe Happy Ending,” the South Korean show about two humanlike helper-bots with music by Will Aronson and lyrics by Hue Park which he co-produced and starred in on Broadway. After a lovely take on “How to Be Not Alone,” sung in the musical by Helen J. Shen, Criss delivered a moving “Where You Belong,” which he performed in the show.
The San Francisco native’s good humor was sprinkled throughout “An Evening with Darren Criss,” with his expletives-undeleted patter delighting his attentive audience. He also elicited laughter and stirred up good memories when he reprised his role as Harry Potter in the parody “A Very Potter Musical,” for which he co-wrote the music and lyrics with his University of Michigan classmate A.J. Holmes. Produced by Starkid Productions, a company founded by Criss and his college classmates, the musical was first performed at UM in 2009. Its YouTube release marked a career breakthrough for the college alum.
Criss – who has brought his “A Very Darren Crissmas” tour to Boston’s Wilbur Theatre and the Emerson Colonial in the past few years – closed out his latest visit with a memorable performance of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dreams,” the first song he ever did on “Glee” and, based on the loud applause it received, an audience favorite.
Photo: Darren Criss, courtesy of Emerson Colonial Theatre.
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