Kristin Chenoweth in Morristown : Just as Pop-u-ler the second time around

Kristen Chenoweth shares stage with MPAC Performing Arts Company, September 2016. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Kristen Chenoweth shares stage with MPAC Performing Arts Company, September 2016. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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Video: No ‘pale drooping maiden’ : Kristin Chenoweth introduces MPAC kids to Stephen Foster

By Kevin Coughlin

You can’t say the second time’s the charm for Kristin Chenoweth.

She was so charming opening last season for the Mayo Performing Arts Center that she got invited back on Friday to raise the curtain for the 2016-17 season.

Kristin Chenoweth is a hit at the 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth is a hit at the 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

In fact, MPAC invited her back twice.  Anyone coming to Chenoweth’s encore show tonight– Saturday, Sept, 24, 2016 — is in for another treat.

Gordon and Cindy Crawford of Morristown were planning to do just that.

“She was incredible,” Cindy Crawford said after Friday’s concert. Her husband ranked Chenoweth’s performance with shows by the late Gregory Hines and Marvin Hamlisch as the best they’ve seen in 15 years as MPAC patrons.

“Her sense of humor is so quick. And her voice is beyond belief,” Gordon Crawford said.

Pound for pound–certainly, inch-for-inch–the 4-foot-11 Chenoweth must rate among the most dynamic entertainers anywhere.

Few can shift as effortlessly from folksy to iconic. And forget the heart-of-gold analogies. It’s more like a heart of plutonium. How else do you explain such towering sound from a package so petite?

Video: Kristin Chenoweth and MPAC teens sing ‘I Was Here.’

The Oklahoma native has an Emmy, a Tony, a jewelry line, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Best known for her roles in Glee, The West Wing and Wicked, she returns to the Great White Way in November for My Love Letter to Broadway.

Chenoweth, 48, also has a shiny new album, The Art of Elegance, which she pitched with comic flair in Morristown. She exuded pizzazz for one of the “new” tracks, Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart, a song recorded by Judy Garland in 1938.

Other crowd-pleasers included Should I Be Sweet, from Ethel Merman’s 1933 show Take A Chance; Chenoweth’s flirty favorite, Taylor, The Latte Boy; and a raucously risqué Dance Ten, Looks Three, from A Chorus Line.

Kristin Chenoweth interviews chorus member Rachel Levy at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth interviews chorus member Rachel Levy at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin.

Chenoweth added a smooth duet of Don Henley’s The Heart of the Matter with Mary-Mitchell Campbell, her pianist and musical director.

She got a standing ovation with Bring Him Home, a mesmerizing ballad from Les Misérables that she dedicated to victims of mass shootings in the news.

That song went over big last year, too, as did other numbers she reprised, ranging from a comb-over sendup of Donald Trump for Popular and a duet with an audience member on For Good, to a moving rendition of I Was Here with youth members of MPAC’s Performing Arts Company.

(This was a reunion of sorts; some of the teens sang with her at the White House for a TV special last fall.)

Let’s face it, Chenoweth could have done Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for 90 minutes and probably cadged another opening night gig, same time next year.

We’re betting the choice still would be Pop-u-ler.

Slideshow photos by Kevin Coughlin

Kristin Chenoweth is a hit at the 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth belts it out at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Dodge Foundation CEO Chris Daggett and his wife Bea at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth hits all the right notes at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Stacey and Bill Schlosser enjoy Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth performs at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
MPAC CEO Allison Larena chats with patron Jock Clark at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth sings 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
MPAC Chairman Joseph Goryeb at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth interviews chorus member Rachel Levy at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth stands tall at the 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Jefferson Kirby, a benefactor of MPAC, at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth returns for 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Classmates Justine Murray and Samantha Alexander at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC.  Alexander performed with Chenoweth. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth jokes at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Ed Kirchdoerffer, GM, and MPAC CEO Allison Larena at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth reaches out at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Gordon and Cindy Crawford of Morristown at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season openerr at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth with Enjou chocolate slipper, at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth duets with audience member at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth looks to balcony at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Linda Hellstrom, left, with Jock Clark and his wife,  Mary Robertson, at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth lights up at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Mayor Tim Dougherty and wife Mary Dougherty with Kristin Chenoweth at MPAC.  Councilmembers Michelle Dupree Harris, Alison Deeb and Michael Elms also attended opening night. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth gets serious at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
MPAC staffers Justin Wynn and Lauren Soule at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener . Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth is all smiles at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth interviews chorus members  at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth at the 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
The Hon. Joan Bedin Murray and her daughter, Justine Muray, at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth deadpans at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Mary Sue DePaola and Ed Kirchdoerffer of MPAC and Samantha and Sheri Alexander, at Kristin Chenoweth 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth with Performing Arts Company at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
Kristin Chenoweth at 2016-17 season opener at MPAC. Photo by Kevin Coughlin, Sept. 23, 2016.
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