Idina Menzel electrifies PNC Bank Arts Center

This diva needs her stage — and Idina Menzel electrified the one at PNC Bank Arts Center on Sunday night.

In fact, maybe it’s a good thing PNC isn’t an indoor venue, because she surely would have rattled the walls and blown the roof off, too.

From the opening notes of “Wicked’s” “Defying Gravity,” through a haunting cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” and a tribute to Ethel Merman — “the pioneer of belting women on Broadway”— to a sweet a cappella version of “For Good,” and everywhere in between, Menzel captivated her audience, having them cheering on their feet one moment and leaving them near-silent the next.

The show was a homecoming of sorts for Menzel.

“I always say I’m from Long Island,” she said, “but I lived in New Jersey for the first couple years of my life.”

She says she lived in Middlesex and Somerset counties and went to elementary school in Marlboro.

She later sang the praises of PNC during a heartfelt tribute to the late Jonathan Larson before singing “No Day But Today” from “Rent.”

“It’s a really good time to remember what his whole show taught us, to embrace the moment. Not take things for granted. I’m just sitting here with my hometown peeps in New Jersey. This incredible PNC Arts Center that I’ve seen shows my whole life and wished I could be standing up on this stage. I’m taking it in and I’m living in this moment.”

Menzel’s “If/Then” co-stars Tamika Lawrence and Tony Award winner LaChanze were among her friends and family in the audience. LaChanze later tweeted, “Idina was on fire!” Lawrence tweeted, “Yall!!! @idinamenzel did it tonight! I just sat dumbfounded the entire time. She’s breathtaking. Do yourself a favor and catch her on tour.”

Local stars

The night included a star turn for Tyler Cicardo, 22, of Toms River, who sang with Menzel on “Rent’s” “Take Me Or Leave Me.”

“It was amazing. I’m still in shock,” he said after the show. “When she said ‘Rent’ and it was a duet, I was like, ‘I’m not going to pass this up.’ And then she called me back again. Two dreams came true in one day.”

Also featured on “Take Me Or Leave Me” were a pair of Menzel’s smallest fans. She stopped the song for a rousing rendition of “You are My Sunshine” from a little boy named Evan, then sang “The Wheels on the Bus” with a girl in an Elsa dress — after putting the kibosh on the girl’s plan to sing “Let It Go.”

“No you can’t do that one. Whose show do you think this is?”

Audience interaction

Menzel’s easy banter resonated with the crowd throughout the evening, nearly as much as her powerhouse vocals and legendary stage presence did.

She skipped across the PNC stage toward the start of the show, saying “This is so cool! When you get famous, you get a much bigger stage!”

Responding to a shouted pledge of love from the audience, she said, “I think if we had a drink and I get to know you better I’d love you. I’m not sure I love you now. What, you want to sleep with me? Love doesn’t do it for me these days. Oh, I forgot, if you’re with an 11-year-old girl now, cover her ears.”

Later she stopped “Let It Go” — itself a show-stopper — to remove her slippers from the middle of the stage. “I’m such a trashy girl,” she said before continuing. She segued into the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away” at the end of the song.

Katie Iko of South River had one word for the show — “stunning.” The 12-year-old “Wicked” fan, clad in a show T-shirt, said “Defying Gravity” was “amazing.”

Menzel also performed three of her original songs, “Brave,” “I Stand” from 2008’s “I Stand,” and “Still I Can’t Be Still” the title song from her first album, released in 1998.

“I think about three of you bought it,” she said.

“Creep” she performed largely lying on the stage, displaying her stellar pipes even from a position nearly flat on her back.

She also belted out a powerful rendition of “Funny Girl’s” “Don’t Rain on My Parade” — including “Hey there Jersey, here I am,” — “The Wizard and I,” a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River,” “Always Starting Over” from “If/Then,” and a mashup of Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” from “The New Yorkers” and The Police’s “Roxanne.”

For the encore she performed “Child,” a new song she says she wrote for her son, before finishing things off with a powerful rendition of “Tomorrow” from “Annie.”

Menzel sent the audience home with one last bit of local appreciation. “Good night, New Jersey! I love you so much!”