Photo by Walter McBride
It is a rare honour to be given the opportunity to stage your own concert at a Broadway Theatre. If we consider our modern day Broadway performers, there is probably only a handful that could entice an audience to fill such a large venue. Tony and Emmy Award winner Kristin Chenoweth has been long overdue this honour and that's why My Love Letter to Broadway is our #ShowOfTheWeek!
Kristin's sixth album, which goes by the name of The Art of Elegance, was released on 23rd September. It contains 13 tracks of timeless classics, including "A House is Not a Home," "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," "I Get Along Without You Very Well," and "Smile" (all of which, Ms. Chenoweth performed live on the evening I attended My Love Letter to Broadway). Luckily for her legions of fans in the New York area, heavyweight producer James L. Nederlander thought he would celebrate this record release with 12 concerts at the beautiful Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Her final performance will be this coming Sunday, so it's a case of last chance saloon, if you want to see this Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native.
The show is put together with an elegant simplicity and a helping of cheeky humour that has become Ms. Chenoweth's trademark over the years. The six-piece band is spread out evenly over the stage and includes Kristin's always talented friend and music director, Mary-Mitchell Campbell. The pink frame of the stage is adorned by classy "KC" initials by Rob Bissinger and the back wall is flooded with soothing colours of light by Matt Berman. There is minimal usage of props and there are a couple of nicely edited video montages, put together to push our emotional buttons.... Oh, and three fabulous outfits, designed especially for Kristin for this show by "Project Runway" star Christian Siriano. But despite these shimmering, fit-for-a-princess costumes, there is only one reason people come to My Love Letter to Broadway and that is to hear the vocal skills of this pocket-sized powerhouse of a classically trained coloratura soprano! From the moment she walks on the stage, sits down at her dressing table and pens a letter (in song) to producer James L. Nederlander, she has us in the palm of her hand and refuses to let go until the tear-jerking final number.
Ms. Chenoweth has set herself the challenge of varying the set list for each of the 12 performances, so fans will be kept on their toes just as much as their heroine herself. But with a back catalogue of hits from her Broadway outings in the likes of Wicked, Promises, Promises, On the Twentieth Century, and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and TV appearances on shows like Glee, she has more than enough to satisfy a show tune-loving crowd!
Her next musical venture will be the role of Velma Von Tussle in NBC's Hairspray Live! on December 7th, but if you can't wait that long and want to see this Broadway belle live - and, better yet, in person - get yourself at ticket and get down to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre pronto!
Click here for tickets to Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway, which is booking through to November 13th, 2017 at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
Kristin Chenoweth in My Love Letter to BroadwayOriginally published on