The concert that I attended was titled An Intimate Evening with Kristin Chenoweth. It was held in Waukegan at the Genesee Theatre on Oct 1st. Kristin Chenoweth was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where the Chenoweths adopted her soon after her birth. From a very young age Kristin began to get involved in the performing arts; she sang in the Gospel choir, acted in school plays, and took dance classes. Religion is and has always been very important to Kristin, partially because it was her first connection into the world of music. Kristin states that in every one of her concerts she will always do a song about God because he led her on this path. At the age of 12, Kristin sang a solo at the Southern Baptist Convention titled “Four Feet Eleven.” One lyric is “I’m only four feet eleven, but I’m going to heaven.”(Citation) Little did she know at age twelve that she was done growing and would remain four feet eleven in height her whole life. Kristin went to Oklahoma City University where she graduated with a musical theatre undergraduate degree and a Masters in opera performance. While there, Kristin studied voice with Florence Birdwell; Florence was also the voice teacher of Tony Winner Kelli O’Hara and Miss America 1918 Susan Powell. Kristin is from humble beginnings, so to fund her education she competed in pageants and was actually crowned runner-up in the Miss Oklahoma Pageant in 1991.
During her time at Oklahoma City University, Kristin participated in several vocal competitions and was named “most promising up-and-coming singer” in the Metropolitan Opera National Council (citation). This accolade came with a full ride to Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts, but two weeks prior to classes starting, Kristin was helping a friend move to New York and on a whim decided to join her friend at an audition for Animal Crackers. She ended up being cast and soon thereafter made her off-Broadway debut. That was the beginning of an extremely successful career. Kristin made her Broadway debut in 1999 as Sally Brown in the revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Although You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown only ran for 149 performances. Kristin still managed to win both the Tony and a Drama Desk awards for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. (Citation) Kristin had several other roles in the following years, but the one that she is probably most remembered for is that of Glinda in Wicked, which debuted on Broadway in 2003. Kristin was nominated for both the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, however she did not win either. Since leaving Wicked in 2004, Kristin had been seen on Broadway in various shows including The Apple Tree, Promises, On the Twentieth Century and My Love Letter to Broadway. Kristin had also been seen several times on the small screen, from the made-for-TV musical Annie in 1999 to Pushing Daisies in 2006, to Hairspray Live in 2016. She has also released several albums, my favorite being the Art of Elegance which was just released in 2016. In 2006 alone she appeared in six movies, two TV shows, and starred in The Apple Tree on Broadway. She now spends the majority of her time touring her solo show and doing on screen work. Kristin Chenoweth has the ability to flawlessly cross genres -from opera to musical theatre, and mediums -from television and film to Broadway. Kristin talked about her struggle to please her entire audience, because Kristin has a very diverse background, she therefore has a very diverse fan base. During rehearsal, Kristin stated “I have to make a concert that can appease the Gays, the Christians, the Southerners, the theatrical elite, the old, and the young, but I still want to sing music I love.”
As you may have guessed, I not only had the pleasure of attending An Intimate Evening with Kristin Chenoweth, but I also had the amazing opportunity to sing with her. I only sang in two songs and therefore got was able to watch the rest of the concert. My favorite part was when I got to hear the sound check where she selected the songs she would be performing in the concert. During our rehearsal we had a once in a lifetime experience as we stood around the piano and just sang and talked with Kristin. She talked about how it is hard to build a concert because she wants to just do songs that she loves, but she has to remember who is in the audience. She also mentioned that there are songs that she is tired of singing, for example, “Taylor the Latte Boy”, but that she was met with a disappointed and dissatisfied audience the one time she did not sing it in her concert. Some songs that Kristin sang in sound check that didn’t make it into the concert were: “Pie Jesu,” a classical piece, “Boy,” a country piece, “Losing My Mind,” an early contemporary musical theatre piece,“Obedience School,” and “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. Kristin brought a fresh take to every one of these songs, all but one of which I had heard before. Her operatic background mixed with her mastering of Musical Theatre tone provided effortless sound and breath control, but a tone that flawlessly transitions from Musical Theatre to Country to Classical Music. The one song that I hadn’t heard before was “Obedience School”; Kristin wrote “Obedience School” for her dog, Thunder. The song structure is very simple, it draws from both Country and Musical Theatre music with the Twang used and the quick comedic lyrics. The song is very rangey which makes sense because Kristin has an unusually large range. The harmony and melodic line are simple and repetitive. One thing I have yet to mention is that in the concert the only instrument other than Kristin’s voice was a piano. The pianist was Mary Mitchell-Campbell, who is a musical director, orchestrator, teacher, and philanthropist. Recently, she provided musical direction for Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway, as well as orchestrations for the Off-Broadway revival of Sweet Charity with Sutton Foster. Mitchell-Campbell is currently music directing Mean Girls the Musical, which is heading to Broadway. In the Concert, Mitchell-Campbell sang with Kristin in some songs when harmony was essential such as “Pie Jesu” and “Obedience School.”
To start the actual show, Kristin Sang “Should I Be Sweet.” which is a song from a 1932 musical titled Take a Chance. To me this song embodies Kristin Chenoweth. It has everything that she does well, comedy, classical, and contemporary. It, like her, crosses between two genres, the first being classical music and the second being a jazzy contemporary musical theatre sound. The song goes back and forth between these two genres for comedic effect. The classical parts have long, extended, high notes with a somewhat disjointed melody. The contemporary jazz parts have very little range and simple staccato rhythms She also changes her tonality, for the classical parts she would use rounded vowels, have a lifted soft pallet, and use full vibrato. For the jazzy musical theatre sections she used a very forward nasal tone and had little to no vibrato. Kristin’s concert included “Zing! Went the Strings of my Heart,” a popular song from the 1930’s made famous my Judy Garland. “50 years in West Oklahoma,” is a country musical theatre song that is actually titled “50 years in West Pennsylvania,” Kristin, however got permission from the Lyricist to change it for her solo show. She identifies with the story and the country twang and believes that changing one word does not change the song. She sang classics like “Popular,” from Wicked “Taylor the Latte Boy,” a stand alone contemporary musical theatre song and “Upon this Rock,” her “God song.” She also sang a new song titled “Reasons For Hope,” She used to sing “I’m Here” which was about leaving your mark on the world but with the changing times and the new political climate, Kristin wanted her song to be about peace and coming together. Singing on Stage with Kristin was like being in a dream. She has such effortless control over her voice and uses dynamic and vocal stylings to help convey emotions. Some people believe that the voice itself and the melodic line are not enough, that you need words to to really communicate a message. Kristin proves them wrong, her non lexical moments have just as much meaning as the lexical parts of her songs.
During our time together Kristin Chenoweth spoke to her favorite song “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables. Growing up she loved the song but always thought that she couldn’t sing it because it wasn’t written for a female, and it just wasn't her story to tell. But as she grew older she realized how universal the message was and that it was just as much her story to tell as it is any man’s who has played Valjean. After doing a flawless rendition of the song Kristin said “You may have noticed that there is reverb on this mic. Yes, I am using amplification, but no, I do not need too.” She then proceeded to fill the 2400 seat Genesee Theatre without any amplification. “Bring Him Home” was the one moment in which she threw out the cultural expectations and ramifications and sang a song that she loved.
“Bring Him Home” is from the musical Les Miserables, fondly termed Le Mis, based on the classical book by Victor Hugo. The Musical was written by …. Lyrics and … Music. Le Mis is one of those musicals that everyone knows, not just the theatre people. It may be do to the fact that there have been constant productions