Someone in a Tree2 said: "I see what you're doing there vis-a-vis the deleted thread. Very clever.
Please tell me what I'm doing vis-a-vis the deleted thread. I don't get many compliments. Keep in mind that I don't post very often, what I do post is usually ignored and I don't personally know a single person from this message board. And let me know if you read the offending post.
My first exposure to Kristin was a clip of her Tony winning "My New Philosophy." It was so cute and stamped her as someone truly original. I think I saw her live before Promises, Promises, but my 15-years-older-than-Kristin brain takes time to retrieve information. If I did see her before Promises, it was probably some gala. I know that I bought her first album soon after Charlie Brown, and it became one of my favorite albums, even over most of my Grateful Dead records. I knew "Let Yourself Go" as one of Ginger Roger's rare solos in the Astaire/Rogers film Follow the Fleet. Comden and Green's "If" was a near-classic of comedic songs and I understand that she invited them to the recording and they accepted. The duet with Jason Alexander was another original and funny track. I could go on.
I must have seen her do "Glitter and Be Gay" on a Boston Pops highlights DVD. It's a very funny piece. I would have liked to see what Barbara Cook did with that number. I'm sure it would have been more subdued than that of Kristin. Maybe it's on Youtube.
Promises was really a non-starter for Chenoweth, but a few who left at intermission missed a laugh riot as Katie Finneran with the late Dick Latessa and Sean Hayes produced non-stop laughter. Wicked was before I started treating myself to musicals and concerts in Manhattan to relieve the stress of being the only caretaker of my 90 year old mother as she slipped gradually into dementia. I don't think I would have seen the show anyway. I'm not sure what its audience is for it to keep going for so long.
I did see her in 20th Century four times, from the 2nd preview, without Peter Gallagher, to the last performance. But the third time was actually the most magical. The audience was so enthusiastic.
I saw her in concert at Carnegie Hall as well as last November at the Lunt Fontanne. I thought that in her last album, "The Art of Elegance," she approached the material with almost too much reverence. But some of her covers, especially "I Get Along Without You Very Well," are about as good as anyone's ever.
This album also was the first to break the barrier at the Sinatra Channel on SiriusXM Satellite radio. She did a "Playing Favorites" segment on the show, where a guest plays his or her favorite Sinatra songs for an hour, and customarily plays three or four songs by other artists. Kristin took advantage of this to play three or four songs from her album.
But Nancy Sinatra, who I think really runs the channel for the Sinatra family, must have liked the recording and/or Kristin, because the album ended up on the channel's playlist, the first by any predominantly theater actor. No Audra. No Kelli.
And have you seen her recent tweets? She is in Italy and last Sunday sang a duet with Andrea Bocelli of "My Prayer." At the end he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up to him. Even for someone with so many career highlights, that must have been a thrill.