Review | Kristin Chenoweth Razzle Dazzles Santa Barbara with Vocal — and Comedic — Chops

We already knew that Kristin Chenoweth was a triple threat talent on Broadway, film, and TV, but audiences at Sunday’s Arts & Lectures show at the Granada found out that she has a great gift for improv as well. A little more than midway through what was, up to that point, a powerhouse of a vocal performance by Chenoweth and her six-piece band (which included her handsome new husband, Josh Bryant), an errant fire alarm went off. 

(We later learned that someone had set it off by smoking in the men’s room, but we didn’t know that until much later.) 

Meanwhile, Chenoweth kept her poise like a champ — despite the fact that her adorable little dog was going batshit backstage, and right within her earshot. As we waited to get the all-clear, she riffed about the fact that the theater’s alarm was in the key of “B” (who knew?). 

But as they say, the show must go on, and she really did put on a hell of a good one. 

From the moment she took the stage in a glittery catsuit, Chenoweth commanded our full attention with a nice mix of songs and stories. First up was “I’m a Woman,” after which she noted with characteristic sass, “that’s how I identify, y’all,” before introducing her powerhouse songstress cohorts (she noted she did not call them “backup singers”) Miss Marrisa and Miss Melissa and the rest of the band.  

This wasn’t her first visit to town. Chenoweth shared a hilarious story about vomiting in the back of Carol Burnett’s new Tesla after too many cosmopolitans at Lucky’s. “Be very, very careful of the heavy pours there,” she warned. 

With a singing voice that can do just about any kind of material justice, Chenoweth serenaded us with, among other things, “You Don’t Own Me,” “Fathers and Daughters,” “The Way We Were,” “Desperado” (a duet with Bryant), “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and of course “Popular” from her Broadway hit Wicked. It was during that must-sing song that the alarm went off and Chenoweth smoothly quipped, “That was the most interesting ‘Popular’ I’ve ever done. … I’ll tell that story all over the world.” 

One of my favorite songs of the night was her rendition of Karen Carpenter’s “Yesterday Once More.” I also loved the performance of “Natural Woman,” with Miss Marrisa and Miss Melissa taking the spotlight. And, in another lovely moment of generosity, Chenoweth threw the spotlight on 17-year-old local singer Maile Kai Merrick, a student of her nonprofit Kristin Chenoweth Broadway Boot Camp, who did a beautiful version of the title song from The Light in the Piazza (which Opera Santa Barbara coincidentally performed earlier this year). 

Chenoweth ended the show with “Smile” and left us all doing just that when she momentarily forgot the words and faked her way out with her portrayal of a fire alarm, chiming “Beep, Beep” as she exited stage right like the true pro she clearly is.