Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway BROADWAY REVIEWS

• NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway

  

  Kristin Chenoweth, That Perky Performer With the Powerhouse Pipes

  Charles Isherwood

  November 4, 2016: A Big Gulp plopped on top of a Steinway piano isn’t something I ever expected to see. But there it was, almost towering over Kristin Chenoweth, the petite performer with a powerhouse voice, in her enchanting Broadway concert debut, “My Love Letter to Broadway,” which plays through Nov. 13 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. That staple of American culture — the Big Gulp, I mean — made for a nice reminder of Ms. Chenoweth’s appealingly earthy demeanor. You can take the girl out of Oklahoma, but you can’t take the Oklahoma out of the girl. Which is just fine, because much of Ms. Chenoweth’s appeal is in her perky wholesomeness and golly-gee enthusiasm (not exclusive to the Sooner State, of course), which never feel manufactured. She has lost none of the girlish glow she possessed when she first rose to Broadway stardom, even as she made a winning, self-deprecating joke about her age (48), namely that she hasn’t yet appeared on the cover of the AARP magazine.

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• HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW OF Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway

  

  'Kristin Chenoweth: My Love Letter to Broadway': Theater Review

  David Rooney

  November 4, 2016: The Tony-winning star returns with this concert of personal favorites, which follows the release of her latest studio album of American Songbook classics, 'The Art of Elegance.' Not since Elle Woods strutted onto the stage in the Legally Blonde musical has one woman sported so much girly-girl pink on Broadway. For her terrifically entertaining concert series, titled My Love Letter to Broadway, Kristin Chenoweth has been swathed by costumer Christian Siriano in various shades of fuchsia, starting out in a sexy sequined hot-pants romper, then graduating into a sleek tailored pantsuit and, finally, into the mother of all cotton-candy princess gowns. But Chenoweth could just as convincingly have worn military fatigues, such is the disciplined command with which this sparkplug performer holds the stage through two hours-plus of eclectic song selections and personal reminiscences. Actually, make that fills the stage. Chenoweth draws attention to her diminutive stature by referring to "the original 4' 11" songstress" before she launches into a peppy version of the Judy Garland hit, "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," one of a handful of tracks she performs from her recent studio album, The Art of Elegance. But accompanied by a tip-top six-piece band masterfully led by music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell on the Steinway, Chenoweth has energy, talent and charisma that are anything but tiny.

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