Idina
is just completing her first Australian tour and seems to be leaving behind a mass
of adoring and delighted fans. The evening I spent in her company at the Sydney
Opera House this week is the kind of concert you always remember for its lovely
charm and a performer who sure can sing.
Idina
Menzel has appeared in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne accompanied by
that cities very splendid symphony orchestra, her own traveling trio and
conducted by the glamorous Vanessa Scammell.
She
literally burst onto the stage at the Opera House and immediately took the roof
of the place with The Wizard and I
from Wicked and straight into Don’t rain
on my Parade from Funny Girl. Talk about starting with a bang!
Idina
chose a simple unstructured black gown and was barefoot. Five minutes into her
patter and it was obvious this was a very highly strung artist; she seemed to
be firing on a whole heap of nervous energy, which to be fair was rather off-putting
until you got use to her demeanor. Once she was into a song all of that
disappeared.
