Live from Lincoln Center: Andrew Rannells

This, the last of the Lincoln Center concerts, was the one I was looking forward to the most.  It’s no secret that I’m all about Andrew Rannells at the moment, so this concert’s been a long time coming.  While, looking at all four shows, StephanieJ. Block probably had the best overall outing, this was a close second for me.

Continuing with the theme of each concert having a fairly different feel from the others, Rannells had a very eclectic set list that drew from all kinds of stuff, which highlighted how well-suited his voice is to a variety of genres.  Personally, I would’ve liked to hear more Broadway stuff (but of course!), but the musicals he did include were all well-chosen.  After talking about Falsettos, he did a slight pivot to perform a song from a different William Finn show, a terrific rendition of “And They’re Off” from A New Brain.  He also did a couple numbers from Into the Woods, celebrating it as objectively the best Broadway show filmed for PBS.  I think any Broadway fan can relate hard to his wild performance of every single part in “Your Fault,” and I absolutely love that he sang “No More,” which remains one of my favorites from that show.  Additionally, we got a lovely rendering of “The Boy Next Door” from Meet Me in St. Louis, and he performed a song from a show written by his musical director, once that referenced their mutual Nebraska roots.

But the concert also had a ton of pop and rock stuff, much of which I’m guessing hailed from Rannells’s formative years.  He opened his set with Andrew Gold’s “Lonely Boy,” and the night also included the likes of George Michael and Peter Gabriel.  He sounded just beautiful on k.d. lang’s “Outside Myself” – he moved a lot between upbeat numbers and gentler songs, and while there were places where the slower songs slowed the show down a bit, he sounded great on all of them.  He totally owned the stage on what he explained was his go-to audition song (regardless of its suitability for the show he’s trying out for,) Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” amazingly fun.

A couple songs were just wildly out there.  Even Rannells admitted he didn’t know quite why he was including “Jackie” by Jacques Brel and kept up a running commentary between verses on how weird the song was.  And, with an anecdote about his mother’s record collection that he mistakenly assumed as a child was filled with popular music, he gave a wonderfully-campy performance of Vikki Carr’s “It Must Be Him.”

His stage banter wasn’t as thoughtful or intentional as Stephanie J. Block’s, but he was always very charming, delightfully frank, and frequently funny; I cracked up at him explaining to a woman in the audience that she didn’t have to take so many pictures because the whole show was being filmed for PBS.  Also, the acting he brought to his songs was quite on-point throughout.  I really enjoyed watching how his posture, demeanor, and tone of voice could change so much from song to song – he wasn’t just singing but performing, and it was a good reminder that he’s much more versatile than he’s sometimes given credit for.