Concert preview: Idina Menzel brings big voice to Benedum

Oscar presenter John Travolta may not have gotten Idina Menzel’s name right on the first try, but there are a lot of other names that come to mind when you think of the Tony Award-winning artist: Maureen from “Rent,” Elphaba from “Wicked,” Shelby on TV’s “Glee,” Elsa from “Frozen” …

She didn’t get the Oscar or Grammy that went to the song “Let It Go” from the Disney animated megahit “Frozen”– those go to the songwriting Lopezes — but the song’s popularity stems as much from the composition as from her great big emotional belt. The tune won over millions of fans who couldn’t let it go and peppered the Internet with covers while the singer made Billboard history in May of last year — she became the first person with both a top 10 hit and a Tony Award for acting.

“Let It Go” is sure to be on her program when her world tour stops for a night at the Benedum Center Tuesday.

Before “Frozen” took her career to new heights, Ms. Menzel was pretty in green and soared above a Broadway stage as Elphaba, her Tony-winning role from “Wicked.” The singer, who until then was best known as sexy performance artist Maureen in the original cast of “Rent,” hit Broadway again this year in “If/Then” — for which she received her third Tony nomination in four shows. She has announced that she will hit the road in the tour of the musical starting Nov. 13.

“I’m in that process of just being in the writing stages and recording with producers and songwriters that really inspire me,” she said in a May phone conference with reporters. “There’s not much to say other than that I feel creative and I’m sort of putting my heart out there and exploring different sounds and things like that. I’m not limiting myself.” — And now “Unlimited” is going through the heads of every fan of “Wicked” — “I’m just doing what I feel in my heart, and then I’ll see if there’s somewhat of a theme or a trend going on, and then I’ll pick the songs that tell that story … songs that I love.”

Ms. Menzel has performed several times with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, including a Heinz Hall concert in July 2013, and has appeared at tribute concerts for the late Marvin Hamlisch, who had been her sometimes accompanist and sidekick in concert.

On this tour, her playlist reflects her recent successes and tryouts for an upcoming recording.

In Chicago on Aug. 16, her set list included “Defying Gravity,” “The Wizard and I” and an a cappella version of “For Good” from “Wicked” and “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent,” performed with audience members. She also covered Joni Mitchell’s “River” and Radiohead’s “Creep” and, in cities such as Manchester, England, and Amsterdam, introduced “Child,” a song she wrote for her son “Walker.”

Ms. Menzel is aware that her concert audiences are likely to reflect a wide age range, including pre-tween fans of “Wicked” and “Frozen.”

“I’m trying not to let it impact the show that much. Between ‘Rent,’ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Glee,’ and now ‘Frozen,’ I’ve always had to figure out how to negotiate, navigate around a wide demographic — which is obviously a very lucky thing, a gift, but also can be tricky,” she said. “I’m a 43-year-old woman up there on stage and I curse, I swear about something and then I realize that’s a mom in the front row with her little 8-year-old daughter in an Elsa costume. But I have to be myself, too. That’s a challenging thing is how I reconcile all of that.”

In a Broadway.com report from her June concert in Manila, Philippines, Amiel Mendoza reported, “Memorable parts aside from the easily-predicted show favorites … were the medley of songs popularized by Ethel Merman; emotional versions of ‘Creep’ and ‘No Day but Today’; and her very haunting ode to [the late ‘Rent’ creator’] Jonathan Larson; [and] a goosebump-inducing rendition of ‘For Good’ without accompaniment or help from a microphone — just natural vocal projection.”

Raw emotions and eclectic song selection go hand-in-hand in an Idina Menzel concert, and for those who come to hear her belt her hits, there promises to be plenty of that coming from the Benedum Center stage, too.