Only
three Live from Lincoln Center
concerts this year, so this is the last one.
Megan Hilty put on a definite crowd-pleasing show, packed with Broadway
tunes and lots of treats for her fans.
Of all
the Live from Lincoln Center
concerts, Hilty’s by far has the most fan satisfaction in terms of featuring
performances of Hilty’s well-known numbers.
Smash songs opened and (almost)
closed the show – first up was “They Just Keep Moving the Line,” and near the
end, she did “Don’t Forget Me” infused with a little “Let Me Be Your Star” (she
also sang “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” – not a Smash song, but still on brand.)
I really appreciated the affection Hilty showed for Smash; even though the show itself had plenty of issues and was
short-lived, she happily swore that she’d be singing those songs until the day
she died. Wicked made an appearance as well, a gentle rendition of “For Good”
with not one, but two Elphabas,
Shoshana Bean and Eden Espinosa. All
three ladies sounded really lovely harmonizing together. And we also got a quick medley of songs from 9 to 5.
Really,
though, Broadway was all over this set.
Lots of old standards, like “This Can’t Be Love” from The Boys from Syracuse and “Almost like
Being in Love” from Brigadoon. She did several numbers from Annie, Get Your Gun, including “I Got
the Sun in the Morning” and a
stripped-down version of “There’s No Business like Show Business.” She beautifully sang My Fair Lady’s “I Could Have Danced All Night” to show off her
classically-trained operatic soprano, a weapon I didn’t know she had in her
arsenal (she prefaced that performance by telling us about her training and
confessing that she rarely had the opportunity to use it, accompanied by a
terrific song called “The Alto’s Lament” that examined the woes of always
having to sing harmony.) Like so many of
us, she admitted her undying love for Little
Shop of Horrors and sang “Suddenly Seymour” in a duet with her husband.
Only a
few non-musical-theatre numbers, but the ones she did have were lovely. She performed Don Henley’s “The Heart of the
Matter,” which isn’t a Broadway song but which I associate with Broadway because Kristin Chenoweth performed it when
I saw her live in concert; Hilty’s version of the song was gorgeous, really
delicate and beautiful. And her very
last number was “Rainbow Connection,” her traditional closer since she was
pregnant with her daughter (I loved the story she told about that, how she and
her husband agreed to end every concert that way, knowing their daughter could
hear Hilty singing in utero.)
For stage
banter, I’d put Hilty in between Cynthia Errivo and Annaleigh Ashford. She didn’t do a ton of talking between songs,
but whenever she did, she made it count.
All in all, an excellent concert with lots of familiar songs, which
always makes for a good time. Hilty knew
what the people wanted, and she delivered it in spades.
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