Idina Menzel (Tour – Edinburgh)
Idina Menzel, the most famous Wicked Witch in the West End, brought down the house in Edinburgh as part of her UK tour.
From the second she sang her first note, Idina Menzel proved herself to be anything but green as a leading lady. Her cleverly arranged setlist celebrated the heights of her career, taking us from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to the Western skies of Oz, flowing seamlessly from the Judy Garland torch song to <i>Wicked</i>, the hit musical that made her a leading lady. Skipping barefoot gleefully around the stage, Menzel let everyone know that she was going to make the stage her own, performing with assurance and animation.
Menzel’s concert tour takes the audience on a biographical journey of her career, from wedding and Bat Mitzvah singer to an internationally renowned artist of screen and stage. Here, she demonstrates her great flexibility by moving from between musical genres with ease, belting out Barbara Streisands’ “Don’t Rain On My Parade” in one moment before putting her own spin on the The Police’s classic rock hit, “Roxanne”.
Interjecting her the songs with anecdotes about her younger days, Menzel showed her truly wicked sense of humour, enlightening the audience as to why these songs meant so much to her with wit and warmth. Furthermore, she took the opportunity to pay a heartfelt tribute to her mentor and father figure Marvin Hamlisch, before performing pieces from his musical, <i>A Chorus Line</i>.
To round off this evening of sumptuous and spectacular vocals, Menzel returned to songs from Wicked, coming full circle performing eleven-o-clock number “For Good” and an enthralling, spine-tingling version of “Defying Gravity”. Here, Menzel truly earned her standing ovation. Indulging her audience further, she performed “Somewhere” from the musical <i>West Side Story</i>, allowing her to flaunt her truly powerful voice and garnering yet another standing ovation from the grateful crowd.
In this concert, Idina Menzel has proven herself to be one of the great theatrical leading ladies of recent times. This is a truly spellbinding performance.
