By Brian Scott Lipton . . .
Given her much-avowed adoration of Barbra Streisand, it would have been only fitting if Lea Michele concluded her triumphant two-hour concert at Carnegie Hall on Monday, October 30 – her long-awaited debut as a solo artist at this revered venue – with “Let’s Hear It For Me,” the anthem John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote for Streisand in Funny Lady. After all, a packed, star-studded audience had been doing nothing but cheering and applauding loudly – complete with a few standing ovations – all night.
As well they should have. Michele was in extraordinary voice; looked smashing in a oh-so-chic black dress; and could not have been more charming, even self-deprecating at times, in her patter as she recounted her nearly 30-year career (!) as a performer. Sure, her song list was slightly “predictable,” but Michele was smart enough to give the people exactly what they wanted (and paid top ticket for!)
Having revived her career with groundbreaking turn in the recently closed Broadway revival of Funny Girl, Michele cleverly began the concert walking down one of Carnegie Hall’s aisles while flawlessly belting “Don’t Rain on My Parade” before going on stage to join her nine-piece band, beautifully led by Steven Jamail.
If she started at the “end,” Michele quickly went back to the beginning, giving us an essentially chronological look at her career, explaining how she auditioned on a whim for the Broadway production of Les Miserables –despite no formal vocal training – and landed the role of Young Cosettte. (Thankfully, she chose to deliver a gorgeous rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” rather than the insipid “Castle on a Cloud.”)
She spoke lovingly of what she learned from the four major stars of Ragtime – Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Peter Friedman, and especially, the late Marin Mazzie – before launching into the touching Gliding (which had been sung to her in the show by Friedman’s Tateh.)
Michele proved that, at least looking back, she could laugh at her own naivete, explaining that, at age 14, she was asked to audition for Spring Awakening with a pop song, so she chose “the only one I knew”: “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” (from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar) and putting the audience in stitches with the perfect aside and gesture when she sang the lyric “I’ve had so many men before.”
To represent that Tony-winning show itself. Michele poured her heart into her big solo “Mama Who Bore Me,” before being joined by her co-star and now BFF Jonathan Groff for a gorgeous rendition of “Word of You’re Body” paired with Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein’s ethereal “Somewhere.” (As for Groff’s mini-solo to cover Michele’s “pee break,” you had to be there!)
If one thought, somehow, that Michele was doing an all-Broadway program, there was no need to fear. A lengthy section of the concert was devoted to her hit TV program Glee, with Michele bantering a bit with the audience before serving up immaculate renditions of four of her favorite songs from the show – “Being Good (Isn’t Good Enough)”, “Happy Days Are Here Again”, “Papa Can You Hear Me” and “Maybe This Time.” She was then immediately joined onstage with her other BFF and former Glee co-star Darren Criss, who duetted with Michele on a roof-raising “Suddenly Seymour” and a moving “Make You Feel Me Love.”
And then, we were back to Funny Girl, with Michele delivering a knock-out medley of “I’m The Greatest Star,” “People,” “The Music that Makes Me Dance” and concluding with an especially thrilling “My Man” (which she only got to perform on the stage of the August Wilson Theatre on the show’s closing night.)
While many patrons left after that, Michele did have a special encore planned – one dedicated openly to her son, and perhaps, silently to Carnegie Hall’s most famous performer, Judy Garland. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Like happy little bluebirds, the rest of us flew out of the auditorium on the wings of pure joy!
Photos: Richard Termine
